FabSwingers.com mobile

Already registered?
Login here

Back to forum list
Back to The Lounge

First man to climb Everest?...

Jump to newest
 

By (user no longer on site) OP   
over a year ago

.. is recorded as Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (who reached the top together) on the 29th May, 1953.

There is evidence however, but no conclusive proof, that an Englishman by the name of George Mallory, and partner Andrew Irvine, reached the summit in 1924. Mallory and Irvine were last sighted from their base camp 800 feet below the summit and looked certain to make it. Then the clouds rolled in and they disappeared into legend. Mallory's body was found 75 years later with all his possessions intact except for a photograph of his wife that he was known to have been carrying, and which he had promised her he would leave at the summit should he reach it.

So should history be rewritten to reflect Mallory's glory, or left as it is because it can never be confirmed that he reached the summit?

Reply privatelyReply in forumReply +quote
 

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

dont think history can be rewritten based on anything other than fact.

if it cant be confirmed that he reached the top then sadly it cant be claimed that he got there first

Reply privatelyReply in forumReply +quote
 

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

It should be left as it is and allow people too enjoy the beautifully romantic notion that Mallory may had indeed reached the top first and placed the picture of his wife at the summit as promised,,,,

or indeed perhaps, he held the now long-perished photo tightly in his frost bitten fingers as he perished in the cold, with a frozen tear drops clinging to his cheeks…… having been forced into an irretrievable situation unable to reach the summit or return to his one true love....

Reply privatelyReply in forumReply +quote
 

By (user no longer on site) OP   
over a year ago


"dont think history can be rewritten based on anything other than fact.

if it cant be confirmed that he reached the top then sadly it cant be claimed that he got there first "

That is the purely logical answer isn't it, and I agree with you. I hope one day someone sponsors an expedition to search the summit for the photo to prove he was there. I doubt he would have just left it pegged under a rock and it'd be more likely it would be in a protective cover, buried and possibly signed for posterity - all assumptions I know, but that's what I would have done as he must have known the historical significance of being the first man to reached the peak of the highest mountain in the world.

Reply privatelyReply in forumReply +quote
 

By (user no longer on site) OP   
over a year ago


"It should be left as it is and allow people too enjoy the beautifully romantic notion that Mallory may had indeed reached the top first and placed the picture of his wife at the summit as promised,,,,

or indeed perhaps, he held the now long-perished photo tightly in his frost bitten fingers as he perished in the cold, with a frozen tear drops clinging to his cheeks…… having been forced into an irretrievable situation unable to reach the summit or return to his one true love.... "

Ya soppy bugger.

Reply privatelyReply in forumReply +quote
 

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Left as it is, but a footnote to include the bit you mentioned. Should new evidence come to light in the future as with all history, then it can be rewritten...

Also, I guess the challenge would always be to get there and back, which Mallroy failed to do...

Reply privatelyReply in forumReply +quote
 
 

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

well being from NZ i got to say its Hillary all the way for me, History is full of gray areas and as a previous poster mentioned Mallory didn't make it back may he R.I.P

Reply privatelyReply in forumReply +quote
Post new Message to Thread
back to top