Because it is there......George Leigh Mallory

"Why do you want to climb Mt. Everest?" with the retort: "because it's there", which has been called "the most famous four words in mountaineering". Those were the word of George Leigh Mallory.



George Herbert Leigh Mallory (18 June 1886 – 8 June/9 June 1924) was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s. On the third expedition, in June 1924, Mallory and his climbing partner Andrew Irvine both disappeared somewhere high on the North-East ridge during their attempt to make the first ascent of the world's highest mountain. The pair's last known sighting was only a few hundred metres from the summit. Mallory's ultimate fate was unknown for 75 years, until his body was finally discovered in 1999. Whether or not they reached the summit before they died remains a subject of speculation and continuing research.

In 1921 he participated in the British Reconnaissance Expedition, organised and financed by the Mount Everest Committee, that explored routes up to the North Col of Mount Everest. The expedition produced the first accurate maps of the region around the mountain. Although he was accompanied by several senior members of Britain's Alpine Club and by surveyors based in India, the debilitating effect of altitude meant that Mallory, his climbing partner Guy Bullock and E. O. Wheeler of the Survey of India performed most of the exploration of the slopes. Under Mallory's leadership, and with the assistance of around a dozen Sherpas, the group climbed several lower peaks near Everest. His party were almost certainly the first Westerners to view the Western Cwm at the foot of the Lhotse face, as well as charting the course of the Rongbuk Glacier up to the base of the North Face. After circling the mountain from the south side, his party finally discovered the East Rongbuk Glacier--the highway to the summit now used by nearly all climbers on the Tibetan side of the mountain. By climbing up to the saddle of the North Ridge (the North Col, 23,000-ft, 7000m), Mallory not only became the first human to set foot on the actual mountain, but spied a route to the summit via the North-East Ridge over the obstacle of the Second Step.
In 1922 Mallory returned to the Himalaya as part of the party led by Brig-Gen Charles Bruce and climbing leader Edward Strutt, with a view to making a serious attempt on the summit. Eschewing their bottled oxygen, on ethical grounds, Mallory led his climbing team of Howard Somervell and Edward Norton almost to the crest of the North-East ridge. Despite being hampered and slowed by the thin air, they achieved a record altitude of 26,985 ft (8,225 m) before weather conditions and the late hour forced them to retreat. A second party led by George Finch reached a height of approx. 27,300 feet (8,321 m) using bottled oxygen (both for climbing and--a first--for sleeping) and climbing at record speeds--a fact that Mallory seized upon during the next expedition. Mallory organised a third attempt on the summit, departing as the monsoon arrived.
While Mallory was leading a group of porters down the lower slopes of the North Col of Everest in fresh, waist-high snow, an avalanche swept over the group, killing seven Sherpas. The attempt was immediately abandoned, and Mallory returned home to face criticism for poor judgement, a criticism that was to follow him to the next expedition.
After Mallory & irvine disappeared in third expedition in 1924,Keen-sighted expedition colleague Noel Odell reported the following:
At 12.50, just after I had emerged from a state of jubilation at finding the first definite fossils on Everest, there was a sudden clearing of the atmosphere, and the entire summit ridge and final peak of Everest were unveiled. My eyes became fixed on one tiny black spot silhouetted on a small snow-crest beneath a rock-step in the ridge; the black spot moved. Another black spot became apparent and moved up the snow to join the other on the crest. The first then approached the great rock-step and shortly emerged at the top; the second did likewise. Then the whole fascinating vision vanished, enveloped in cloud once more.
Even if evidence is uncovered which shows that George Mallory or Andrew Irvine reached the summit of Everest in 1924, some believe that the historical record should not be changed to state that they made the first ascent, displacing Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Many mountaineers maintain that a successful first ascent not only involves reaching the summit, but also returning to the bottom. Indeed, George Mallory's own son John Mallory, who was only three years old when his father died, said:
"To me the only way you achieve a summit is to come back alive. The job is half done if you don't get down again".
John Mallory had mixed feelings about his dead father's celebrity status, explaining that he would far rather have had a father than a legend.

Some people have dreams that are so outrageous that if they were to achieve them , their place in the history would be guaranteed. Mallory was such a man but what if he had fulfilled his dream , there was no proof that he had acheived his ambition???

In 1995, Mallory's grandson, George Mallory II, reached the summit of Everest via the North Ridge with six other climbers, as part of the American Everest Expedition 1995.