Just a quick word of thanks to *Michael Tracy* for creating a valuable and useful resource for the study of this fascinating terrain. Additionally, for armchair mountaineers such as myself who will never make it to altitude, there's a strong sense of the utter otherworldliness of the place coming right through the screen. Regards, Kev

Michael Tracy has looked at this from angles that no one has in the last few decades. Everyone has been fixated on the Second Step the way modern route is situated. Many so-called experts have asked, “Did Mallory have the climbing ability to get over the second step?”. So many have stated, “If Mallory scaled the second step, nothing could keep him from the summit.” I believe Conrad Anker stated, if there had been a snow ramp up the second step, Mallory could have walked up. Experts fixated on the hobnail boots and how this would have prevented passing the second step. Michael Tracy has pointed out Mallory had ruled out scaling the face of the second step and the definition of the ridge route is different that today’s definition. No one from years ago, as I recall, ever mentioned looking for rock samples in the pockets. They were fixated on the “Kodak” camera as being one of the key puzzle pieces.

Thank you, Mr. Tracy. This video is invaluable for those of us who are attempting to gain an understanding of the upper reaches of Everest. I very much appreciate your taking the time to get the terrain nailed down before explaining your conclusions. You have a much more valuable point of view than many of the more experienced Himalayan mountaineers, whose very experience can disqualify them from an honest appraisal of the possible performance of the early attempts on Everest. I agree that there is zero possibility that Mallory and Irvine attempted the second step head on. I applaud your willingness to explain how climbing terminology has evolved over the years and how people may use different terms to mean the same thing, or similar terms to mean different things. Thank you again.

I'm not a climber. I can't even get up a ladder. I'm not that intelligent either. But I'm just an ordinary Joe. The videos you present are full on with the amount of research you do. I have watched a lot of other videos. You almost think they could be right. But with your research you put them all to shame. Keep up the good work. I know we we never found out if they reached the top or not. But in my heart of hearts I think they did.

I can literally watch this video time and time again. I have learnt more about the upper faces of Everest from Michael than from anywhere else

Michael, this is exactly the kind of coverage I have been looking for! The North routes really *do* look so completely different from photo to photo. I really appreciate the work you put into this, and all your videos - I’m now a subscriber. ✌🏼

Excellent editing Michael! One of your better videos from which you've made a few! This, hopefully, will put to rest any further ideas that M & I took the crest of the ridge-route head-on on June 8th!👍

One of your best videos yet!! This is incredible research and experience and passion! Love it, looking forward to more!

It's such a monster mountain . In Ireland the hills look big from a distance but get smaller as you get up them . With Everest , as you get closer , it just gets bigger and bigger . Cheers Michael , hope you have a good weekend .

Michael, I really enjoy your videos and appreciate the thought and care that goes into them. One suggestion: I would really appreciate a scale added to the photos you show. When looking at the photos is hard for someone who hasn't been to Everest to understand if a distance is 10 feet or 100 feet. Regardless, keep up the good work.

Fascinating detective work, thank you.

I've been following this story for ten years and I find it almost inconceivable that Mallory and Irvine didn't reach the summit in 1924, on the same expedition Norton made it to within 920 feet of the summit and that was without oxygen. The amount of disinformation that has been pedalled during these ten years is incredible, first we were told that they couldn't have got past the second step because it is insurmountable but we now know that the plan was always to traverse around the second step as stated by Mallory himself and as Norton had done on his unsuccessful attempt. We will probably never know the answer, the failure to search Mallory's pockets for summit rocks when they found his body in 1999 is almost as unforgiveable as the fact he was buried once and then dug up again for more photos. There is the chance that Irvine could be found but is his body even still up there as most of the surrounding area has been searched. Quoting from Wikipedia "The summit was less than 280 m (920 ft) above Norton when he decided to turn around because of increasing terrain difficulty, insufficient time and doubts of his remaining strength." Mallory and Irvine had oxygen so would have been in better shape so the only thing that could have beaten them was the terrain. Thank you Michael Tracy, your research has been peerless in response to the drivel that has been poured out over the last ten years or so by self appointed experts on the matter. I could go on for hours but the main reasons why i think they made it: They used Oxygen. They had as good weather as could be expected - the notion of a storm engulfing them after Odell spotting them has been dispelled The didn't find the letter to Mallory's wife in his possessions in 1999 They died on the descent - as pointed out by Michael Tracy the "summit fever" effect. The fact that the only things that could have defeated them was the terrain or an oxygen equipment malfunction would have meant that would have had turned round earlier than they did and they would have lived to tell the tale

Loving the new graphics/chyrons. It really helps to understand all the place names and routes.

I am amazed how I can not get the mountain out of my head. It's kind of like that guy in the movie "Close Encounter." I think they summited. Their story will long be as famous. What courage!

Incredibly thorough analysis and argumentation. If I ever get framed for some crime I didnt do, I would want you as my defender in court.

These are some sweet photo angles and narration thereof. Thanks fella.

thank you for your excellent research. This is such an interesting topic!

Very cool post! Thank you for the work on this👍

I would love you gain more subscribers, this the best channel for M&I information by far.

Most insightful Mallory and Irvine films made.

Six out of five stars. You’re on a roll with these routes

Super informative. Thanks.

Michael Tracy.... grateful....your insights are deep....never have been able to understand what the mountaineering community has in harping upon repeatedly that they did not summit....hope common sense prevails some day 🙏🏾

Another excellent video packed with lots of great information. A note: you kept saying "nineteen twenty fourteen expedition"

Keep up the good work Michael 👍

Michael Tracy..... thank you 👍

Thank you 🙏

Michael Sir....much obliged 🙏🏾

Still waiting for you to mention how long the rope was that was attached to Mallory when they found him. If it was short then Mallory cut the rope. If it was long then Irvine cut the rope. Would also like you to speculate where Mallory fell from, and if you think Irvine and Malloy would have been tied together when Mallory fell. If they were tied to together when Mallory fell, then Irvine would have fallen to roughly the same place Mallory did. Mallory was found on his stomach, head facing upwards. Was Irvine below him, pulling him down, and then Mallory cut the rope, and Irvine fell down the mountain even further? Can you speculate about why Mallory didn't have an oxygen tank on when he was found? Edit. Thanks for showing the grade of the area. I really want to know if it's likely that Irvine fell all the way down the mountain. Is it steep enough that he could have?

Oh how I wish that on the 100th anniversary this year, we could find Irvine and the cameras....

This video is very informative.

Love the photo at 2:45. Always wondered what the other side of ridge looked like. Looks impossible to use to climb unless heavy snow smooths out the vags.

If it weren't for the Chinese buggering things up (allegedly) and the 1999 expedition buggering things up (definitely) we might have an answer to something that is probably now unknowable.

Hi mr tracey. I really enjoy your content. I was just wondering when your watch video is coming out??

Hi, LOVE your videos. My first question- What is the weather there now/ today?? is there much snow? Are the long range (1? month forecasts reliable?) IF there is not much snow cover are you/ have you been able to get any pics off google earth? 2, How easy is it identify a "summit rock" How are they different from rocks 500 feet lower down? Why? Because I want to know how easy it is use a counterfeit rock and claim it is a summit rock. 3, WHAT is unique about summit rocks? 4 ,@6 minutes, the old white guy (me) is a little confused about each area of each route. Will you post more details / arrows/ lines of each route in your next video?? Have you thought about making and selling an array of pics depicting the different routes/ times etc? First a large pic showing the entire north side, then detailed close up pics with lines and arrows showing specific routes/points/ camps/ bodies/ axe/ oxy bottle?? What do you think the price/ market for such a photo package would be?

But now how am I supposed to use a few carefully selected photos to use as conclusive evidence for the 1924 ridge route for my next book deal now?! Curse you yet again Michael Tracy! 😄 Very interested in hearing your opinions on the Chinese involvement past and present in this ongoing mystery... I shall study the teachings of Mao so I may have the patience to wait for your upcoming "First North Summit 😉" video!

Hi Michael....great work of yours continues and I am really grateful to you for the same, which I am sure many more too , are....one small query though....I had read sometime ago that there is a hump like feature in between steps 1 and 2, which has a snow too and negotiating that fits in the manner Odell has described his sighting of Mallory and Irvine....one figure climbed the rock step, soon the second followed...i have always thought of enquiring about it from you....i think this video now provides me with that opportunity....am really eager to hear your analysis on the same, please

The decontextualization of older sources seems to be a recurring theme. Without doing the research to understand what people from a different era meant by the words they were using it is impossible to reconstruct events of the past. This seems to compound the Rashomon effect.

Did any Chinese climber write about the 1960 expedition or keep a diary? The little bit it says about the expedition on wikipedia is interesting.

👍👍

Messner's route in 1980 was pure genius, I wonder if it even occurred to the 1924 expeditions that it might be better to get near to the summit on a lower altitude and then spend less time in high altitude to make the summit. Maybe the concept of the death zone was not very developed in 1924.

Is there any particular reason the third step is climbed directly, as opposed to going around it? From the photo, it seems simpler and less arduous to go around but maybe there's less room for error or more variability in terrain due to snow and weather conditions perhaps.

Dear Michael Sir....as you have seen, new picture of Mallory 's watch has been released by Thom Pollard just now. After viewing it, does your thesis about The Watch and timings remains the same or a change can be expected ?.... thank you

in reading Reinhold Messners book about Mallory, to me it seamed that Norton crossed over to the right and than went up the Great Coular that now bears his name, or perhaps a misunderstanding, something it appears to me you’re having him up going over the top of the Norton cooler where my understanding is that he went up about center of it, and then went straight up it, turning back somewhere near the top of the coular. enjoy your videos very much man detail and you actually climbed it which is pretty bad ass. Sidenote, if you could do a video on the three pinnacles, I would really appreciate it because I’ve been searching and searching to find as much as I can about Boardman and Tasker and the three pinacles but very little out there.

Forgive the crudeness of this comment, but this is information porn of the highest order. As I said, please forgive the language if it's not to your taste, but the sentiment is 100% accurate.

Mallory was a rock climber first. I understand there there are some pretty decent hand holds on the second step to climb up and over. Anker claimed he could have done it and the first time he climbed it he did it in 5 minutes. Hahn claims with the longer ice axes of their day it could have also aided In his climb up. But I am no expert.

Michael, I have watched a number of you videos and read comments about "summit rocks". Would you be willing to make a short video about these rocks? Are they unique on Everest? Or sufficiently different from rocks of lower strata as to be conclusive proof of a successful summit? Thanks from a non-geologist!

Hi. awesome videos. Quick question...can you point out Green Boots Cave in the picture at :46?

awaiting the detailed zig-zag video...or is it out already? if yes, someone share the link?

Agree with everything you said!!! There is no way they climbed the second step. The Norton route is the known evil for them...

Excuse my ignorance here, but has there ever been an attempt to actually climb the approximate zig-zag route in the modern day? If not, then this seems like a reasonable way to discern just how challenging it really is.

Long winded opinion on 99 expedition v. Mallory and Irvine: One of the main reasons why I don't listen to Conrad Anker, Dave Hahn, or anyone who thinks it's unlikely that Mallory & Irvine summited, is because they seemed genuinely shocked that the 1924 expedition even made it as far as they did (the uncontested climbing record set on that expedition). This makes them less credible, in my opinion. While my logic is not completely sound, (I'm not attempting to make an argument from a pure logicians standpoint) it seems as if those on the 1999 expedition, if asked whether or not men in 1924, in tweed jackets and what amount to little more than logging caulks, could have even made it to base camp, before being educated and faced with conclusive evidence proving that they in fact did get to base camp, I believe they'd unequivocally state, "no way." Their shock at there even being an expedition that got *close* is all the evidence I need to readily dismiss their opinions, before even examining their version of the facts or really listening to what they have to say, as it shows their lack of humility before the history of their own sport. The arrogance of believing that as an athlete you are the sum total of all of the technology and improvements made and lessons learned by those who came before you is a common misconception in the world of sport. As athletes (I was a collegiate-style wrestler for 20 years), we always approach things with a tremendous amount of recency bias due to a lack of education/appreciation for our own history. As wrestlers, we'd see photos of guys from 40s and 50s in their silly leggings and tights and think things like "oh wow, that guy looks terrible," etcetera. However, when you then realize that those same wrestlers are still out there coaching world class athletes today, it calls into question whether or not they were really that "terrible." When those same coaches say things like "John Smith from the 1952 NCAA Iowa wrestling team could beat anyone, even Olympians today," it comes with a certain measure of legitimacy. The 99 expedition finds it absurd to believe Irvine could have summited. It's not like the 1924 expedition did not realize his lack of experience. He proved himself to be one of the best climbers there, even among men with a decade more climbing experience than himself. The fully anticipated his lack of experience to be a liability, and it was proven not to be the case. Those climbers like Anker want to believe that 1924 was some remote time in ancient history. That climbers of that age cannot be compared to climbers today. However on the timeline of man as a species, 1924 was simply yesterday. Sure, they didn't have Patagonia mittens, but they had something money couldn't ever buy: the daring will of the human spirit that compelled them to be the very first. They had more hardiness in one step than most contemporary climbers could ever dream of. They didn't know that they didn't have Patagonia or modern climbing boots. They only knew that they had to summit, period. 1924 was not 1924 BC. It's 1924 as in just 75 short years before the 99 expedition.

@5:00 please excuse my ignorance, but what is that car key fob thing on your chest?

Dear Michael Sir.....what is your opinion on the Extra Sleeping Bags theory.....that two sleeping bags were unaccounted for....pl do comment whenever you find time.... thank you

The more I listen to your commentary, I am starting to think that they were murdered. I mean, an Ice Axe wound into his head????

What's that "remote" like device clipped to you with the 1-2-3 on it?

My this theory is based on extremely simple assumptions that a three time Everest veteran like Mallory must have made. For a successful summit., the essentials were.....firstly, a launching base as high as possible ( 1924 camp 6), secondly, availability of maximum daylight hours (0230h to 1930h gave them 17 hours), thirdly, oxygen (6-7 bottles), fourthly, ensuring no time was wasted in negotiating obstacles (follow the beaten path till as long as u can, then find a path which needed no efforts of rock climbing, step cutting, belay, etc ), fifthly, keep energy levels up....that was the only way to reach a summit in super high altitude in unchartered and unknown territory without any extra support but only a gut climber's instincts......

good Video , only question I still have is who cut Mallory`s rope ? Marble and Limestone didnt

Dear Michael..... three arguments put forward by theorists for Mallory and Irvine not having been seen by Odell at Step 3 are a. They could not have made it so fast from 1924 Camp 6 to be at the third step at 1250h. b. If they had taken the Couloir Route, and if they successfully traversed out of it, it is more prudent to continue climbing up northwards to the summit (like messner) than RETURN back to the third step to climb the summit through the ridge route. c. Though Norton briefed Mallory about the climbability through the Couloir, he also expressed the steepness, loose rocks and soft snow along this Couloir Route, that made it dangerous and time consuming 'step cutting, belay support from second climbing partner, etc'. My viewpoint to counter these is that if Odell saw Mallory and Irvine at the third step at 1250h, ....then perhaps they had started from their camp 6 early in the morning, maybe a 0230 h start ( not taking headlamps may have been due to load of the oxygen bottles and in hope that these lamps shall not be needed after daybreak at 0513h in hope of a successyretturn back to their high camp 6 by 1930h, when moon would be out ,... Therefore availability of enough daylight and moonlight hours). It may have been a stupid decision as we view today, having the benefit of hindsight available to us. However, these were young dedicated enthusiasts, committed to their goal even to the peril of their lives....hence, were very much capable of taking such decisions to reduce as much unnecessary load as they could due to excess Bloody Load for Climbing in the form of 5 to 6 oxygen bottles. They started at 0230h, as Mallory was known for in previous ascents to other summits, ....went on Norton's route....entered the Great Couloir....exited it....To counter the extreme wind on North face wall....adhered to their plan ..... RETURNED back to the zig zag route or any other route to reach the third step at 1250h....now, as Mallory had known from his previous 1921 and 1922 experiences, both major obstacles viz, the second step and wind beaten North Face wall ...were now behind them, the summit was now within reach without having to perform any dangerous or time consuming endeavours......pl prove me wrong, Sir

I believe he changes his plans and his election of Sandy points heavily in that direction

Middle finger for your information…do you know about everest???