Magdalene College posted the letters online to mark the centenary of George Mallory's ill-fated attempt to stand atop the world
Magdalene College posted the letters online to mark the centenary of George Mallory's ill-fated attempt to stand atop the worldIn his final letter to his wife before he vanished on Mount Everest a century ago, George Mallory tried to ease her worries even as he said his chances of reaching the world's highest peak were “50 to 1 against us."
It remains a mystery whether Mallory, who once famously said he wanted to conquer Everest “because it’s there,” and climbing partner Andrew Irvine reached the summit and died on the way down or never made it that far. Mallory’s body was found 75 years later far below the peak but Irvine's has never been located.Joseph Pratt climbed Mount Everest in 2012. He talks about how it was the hardest thing he’s ever done.
“I know I have rather often been cross and not nice and I am very sorry but the bottom reason has nearly always been because I was unhappy at getting so little of you," Ruth Mallory wrote on March 3, 1924. “I know it is pretty stupid to spoil the times I do have you for those when I don’t.” Mallory said he had a nagging cough “fit to tear one’s guts” that left him sleepless and made climbing difficult. He described a near-death plunge into a crevasse when he failed to detect it beneath a blanket of snow.
Mallory and Irvine were last seen alive June 8, 1924 when they were said to be still going strong some 900 feet beneath the 29,035 feet summit. Mallory’s body was found at 26,700 feet .
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Read the last letters by George Mallory, who died exploring Mt. Everest in 1924Laura is a science news writer, covering a wide variety of subjects, but she is particularly fascinated by all things aquatic, paleontology, nanotechnology, and exploring how science influences daily life. Laura is a proud former resident of the New Jersey shore, a competitive swimmer, and a fierce defender of the Oxford comma.
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