The 1924 British Mount Everest expedition was—after the 1922 British Mount Everest expedition—the 2nd expedition with the goal of achieving the first ascent of Mount Everest. After two summit attempts in which Edward Norton set a world altitude record of , the mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine disappeared on the third attempt. Their disappearance has given rise to the long-standing speculation of whether or not the pair mightunder a narrow set of assumptionshave reached the summit. Mallory's body was found in 1999 at , but the resulting clues did not provide any conclusive evidence as to whether the summit was reached.
Background and motivation
At the beginning of the 20th century, the British participated in contests to be the first to reach the North and South Poles, without success. A desire to restore national prestige led to scrutiny and discussion of the possibility of "conquering the third pole" – making the first ascent of the highest mountain on Earth.
The southern side of the mountain, which is accessible from Nepal and today is the standard climbing route, was unavailable as Nepal was a "forbidden country" for westerners. Going to the north side was politically complex: it required the persistent intervention of the British-Indian government with the Dalai Lama regime in Tibet to allow British expedition activities.
A major handicap of all expeditions to the north side of Mount Everest is the tight time window between the end of winter and the start of the monsoon rains. To travel from Darjeeling in northern India over Sikkim to Tibet, it was necessary to climb high, long snow-laden passes east of the Kangchenjunga area. After this first step, a long journey followed through the valley of the Arun River to the Rongbuk valley near the north face of Mount Everest. Horses, donkeys, yaks, and dozens of local porters provided transport. The expeditions arrived at Mount Everest in late April and only had until June before the monsoon began, allowing only six to eight weeks for altitude acclimatisation, setting up camps, and the actual climbing attempts.
A secondary task for the expedition was to survey the area around the West Rongbuk Glacier. The Survey of India sent a Gurkha surveyor with the expedition who was assisted in climbing to the difficult areas to survey.
Preparations
Two expeditions preceded the 1924 effort. The first in 1921 was an exploratory expedition led by Harold Raeburn which described a potential route along the whole northeast ridge. Later George Mallory proposed a longer modified climb to the north col, then along the north ridge to reach the northeast ridge, and then on to the summit. This approach seemed to be the "easiest" terrain to reach the top. After they had discovered access to the base of the north col via the East Rongbuk Glacier, the complete route was explored and appeared to be the superior option. Several attempts on Mallory's proposed route occurred during the 1922 expedition.
After this expedition, insufficient time for preparation and a lack of financial means prevented an expedition in 1923. The Common Everest Committee had lost some 700 pounds in the bankruptcy of the Alliance Bank of Simla. So the third expedition was postponed until 1924.
Like the two earlier expeditions, the 1924 expedition was also planned, financed and organised by the membership of the Royal Geographical Society, the Alpine Club, and a major contribution by Captain John Noel, who thereby purchased all photographic rights. The Mount Everest Committee which they formed used military strategies, with some military personnel.
One important change was the role of the porters. The 1922 expedition recognised several of them were capable of gaining great heights and quickly learning mountaineering skills. The changed climbing strategy, which increased their involvement, later culminated in an equal partnership of Tenzing Norgay for the first known ascent in 1953 together with Edmund Hillary. The gradual reversal in the system of "Sahib – Porter" from the earliest expeditions eventually led to a "professional – client" situation where the Sherpa "porters" are the real strong mountaineering professionals and the westerners mainly weaker clients.