The Search for Mallory & Irvine

On 8 June 1924 George Mallory and Andrew Irvine left their tent high on the slopes of Mount Everest and climbed into history. They were seen at 12:50 p.m. just 240 metres from the summit and “going strong for the top.” Within minutes, Mallory and Irvine had disappeared in a snowstorm and were never seen alive again.

What happened to these two pioneering climbers is the most famous mystery in the history of mountaineering. For 75 years, there has been fierce debate over whether they were the first to reach the summit, 29 years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. In March 1999, an expedition primarily sponsored by the BBC climbed to the North Face of Everest. Their discoveries became front-page news around the world. This gripping story by film producer Peter Firstbrook fully explores the events leading up to Mallory and Irvine’s historic attempt to reach the summit of the highest mountain in the world, giving a dramatic first-hand account of the 1999 search expedition. Firstbrook utilises his extensive historical research and the amazing evidence found in 1999 to piece together the final hours of the two brave heroes – George Mallory and Andrew Irvine.

Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine is an extraordinary tale of high adventure by the author of The Voyage of the Matthew.

Peter Firstbrook was the producer of the television program about the voyage of the Matthew. He is well qualified to write about the sea as the possessor of both a degree in oceanography and a boat of his own on which he lives when at home in Bristol, England.

He has produced a number of programs, was one of the organizers behind the International Festival of the Sea, and has written frequently for newspapers and magazines.