Climbers Amazed by Discovery at 27,000' | |
| CLICK TO HEAR THE CALL: |  |
| |
Camp V.
I'm still blown away by yesterday! We found George Mallory, and it was an incredible day. We were up before dawn, climbing in wind, got up to High Camp, established High Camp, and then went searching. I was searching kind of in close around Camp VI where we thought we were going to have some results maybe just within about 20 minutes round trip from there. We had spread out pretty good and Jake, and Tap, and Conrad were doing the big leg work; Andy and myself were just kind of
business-like plodding around, looking things over. Conrad gave the big call from down below. He had covered a lot of ground. We all converged, and we couldn't believe it! There was George Mallory—although we didn't know it was George Mallory at the time. We all thought we were going to find Sandy Irvine.
And so when we realized that it was George Mallory, we were really blown away by that. We didn't want to disturb him. He'd been lying there for 75 years, but at the same time, boy we thought, what better tribute to the man than to try and find out if he had summitted Mt. Everest in 1924. So we did an investigation, which is pretty hard up there on the mountainside with the wind blowing at 27,000 feet, but we did everything we could to look for clues. And we committed him to the mountain—did a ceremony for him that had been recommended by his folks back in England. We covered him up, and then it was just amazing—take one step away from there and you're not worried about George Mallory's life anymore; one step away from him and you're worried about your own life and falling down the North Face again.
That didn't happen. The five of us got back in some nice, big winds, back to Camp V at the end of the day, like I say, about 25,300' or so. And then boy, we just sat up talking. We couldn't believe it. We've got a bunch more clues to work with now. We haven't answered every question that we have, but we've got a few more weeks of expedition and searching to go. I hope you guys'll be patient 'cause I think we're going to have story for you.
[big sigh] Now it's down to Base Camp, get the voice back, get strong, go high again. We're going to be in touch with you in the next few days and let you know what we've got going. Thanks. Bye.
—Dave Hahn, Climber
News organizations who wish further information, please click here.
The Expedition Leader and High Altitude Search Team's Dispatches on Finding Mallory:
| DISPATCHES |  |
   |
