Search for THE Camera: a brief visit with Everest Historian Tom Holzel

Once again, an Everest expedition is trying to solve the who done it mystery of Everest: did George Mallory and Sandy Irvine summit Mt. Everest in 1924? You see Sandy Irvine, who went missing on Everest’s North side in 1924, medicine had a camera.

A  plan is emerging for a new search for the missing camera that could solve the mystery once and for all. We have seen this headline but this time is very different – there is a clue and a map!

Before we take a look at this effort, a tiny bit of background of the north.

The north side of Everest is steeped in history with multiple attempts throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s. The first attempt was by a British team in 1921. Mallory led a small team to be the first human to set foot on the mountains flanks by climbing up to the North Col (7003m).  The second expedition, that of 1922  reached 27,300′ before turning back, and was the first team to use supplemental oxygen. It was also on this expedition that the first deaths were reported when an avalanche killed seven Sherpas.

The 1924 British expedition with George Mallory and Andrew “Sandy” Irvine is most notable for the mystery of whether they summited or not. If they did summit, that would precede Tenzing and Hilary by 29 years. Mallory’s body was found in 1999 but there was no proof that he died going up or coming down thus the importance of finding the camera and potential photos of a summit.

It was a Chinese team who made the first summit from Tibet on May 25, 1960.  Nawang Gombu (Tibetan) and Chinese Chu Yin-Hau and Wang Fu-zhou who is said to have climbed the Second Step in his sock feet, claimed the honor. However without a summit photo, many doubted the summit claim. In 1975, a successful summit was claimed by the Chinese when the ladder on the Second Step was installed.

Tibet was closed to foreigners from 1950 to 1980 preventing any further attempts until a Japanese team summited in 1980 via the Hornbein Couloir on the North Face. The north side started to attract more climbers in the mid 1990s and today is almost as popular as the South side.

But it is who summited first that dominates Everest folklore. Was it Mallory and Irvin in 1924, or Tenzing and Hillary as we know in 1953. Some even speculate it was British climber, Maurice Wilson in 1933

With the mystery dominating Everest gossip for almost a century, teams have looked in vain for positive proof of a 1924 summit. There have been valiant efforts throughout the years.

In 1933, Irvine’s wooden ice axe was found in the fall line of the climber’s last known route. A Chinese porter reported seeing an “an english dead” in 1960 but there were no pictures.

Then in 1999, a team led by IMG founder Eric Simonson conducted a serious search. Conrad Anker found Mallory’s body on the north side below the Chinese reported location. Neither Irvine’s body nor the camera was located. Simonson returned in 2001 to look for the camera, without success. It was the classic needle in the haystack search complicated by snow cover.

While the discovery of Mallory’s body created excitement throughout the climbing world, it did not provide any evidence of a summit. In fact it just fueled the speculation.

Now a decade later, technology has given a boost to the search.

Everest Historian Tom Holzel, who conducted a thwarted search expedition in 1986, took a new approach.

This time he used two images; one from a photo taken in 1933 and another taken in 1984 from a SwissPhoto, AG, Learjet flying over Everest. This last image was very high-resolution.

Holzel used imaging technology to compare the photographs and discovered that the location of an ice ax marking a certain fall of the two climbers, was misplaced by 60 yards. Everyone was looking in the wrong place! Following the new line, he identified what he calls an “oblong blob”. The blob is near where the Chinese porter reported his sighting in 1975.

It was Irvine who is thought to have been carrying the Vest Pocket Kodak camera when he and Mallory disappeared.

Holzel wants to continue the search as soon as he can raise the estimated $150K to fund his small team that includes Thom Pollard and Jake Norton of the 1999 expedition. They will search in a narrow area in the Yellow Band where the photographs show the blob. If they find the camera, they have processes on how to handle it to prevent further damage. Kodak has consulted with them on the project.

Tom was kind  enough to do yet another interview with me. Mind you, he has been interviewed extensively and asked almost every question imaginable so we explored a few surrounding areas.

Q: You have had several lengthy interviews recently, but is anything else you would like to share?

Take a look at these two blog postings for the latest theorizing:

http://www.velocitypress.com/CopyIrvine.shtml
http://www.velocitypress.com/IrvineSearch.htm

{note: these are superb articles that deserve a full read and not a shortened summary}

Q: Why the public’s fascination with Everest for long?

Partially because it is one of the end-points of terrestrial exploration, along with the poles and deepest Africa and the Amazon. The mystery of men going and not coming back is a certain draw. With the secret feeling that anyone of use might have done it–and perhaps come back!

Q: Has the negative attitudes about solving the M&I mystery by the British mountaineering community abated?

No. They are still bitter that not only did they not discover anything (they never even tried), but those crude AMERICANS once again pulled their chestnuts out of the fire. It all stems from the grievous affront suffered by the Alpine Club and the RGS when it was filled with Gentlemen only. Sir Percy Wynn Harris was terribly miffed when I failed to list a long string of other Everest Greats when I described one of them with regard to oxygen experimentation.

Q: Your brief thoughts on non-M&I areas: Did the Chinese summit in 1960. Did Maurice Wilson even stand a chance of summiting?

The 1960s Chinese probably did summit, as I said in a Summit Magazine article, after subjecting their account to a propaganda analysis. Hidden in the midst of much pomp and circumstance was the description of a great rock near the summit, in which they took shelter against the wind. And, it turns out there is such a rock.

It is near certain that Maurice Wilson never even got up to the North Col (7000m). His cause is being pushed by Thomas Noy and others with secret proof. All we have to do is excavate the entire summit snow cap to find Wilson’s shaving mirror which he took to the summit to signal his success to the monks at the Rongbuk Monastery. This mirror was missing from his effects, and of course no Tibetan porter took it when he was discovered by them for the first time…

Q: How is spring 2010 looking at this point? Do you have the expedition organized yet?

The chances of getting $150K in just two weeks is almost nil. But we’ll give it a try. The “rich Saudi Prince” campaign seems the only way to do so. Otherwise, it’ll be a more formal attempt for 2011.

This is a low resolution version of the image Tom has been studying complete with annotation. A larger version (10MB 15320×5973 pixels) is on my site and available for download.

I strongly encourage you to visit these links and read his full thought process. They are compelling, logical and thought provoking.

http://www.velocitypress.com/CopyIrvine.shtml
http://www.velocitypress.com/IrvineSearch.htm

You can also read a summary of Holzel’s efforts on the Scientific American website.

Climb On!

Alan