Mallory and Irvine: The elusive summit of achievement

Nov 18 2009 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

Birkenhead is honouring two of Cheshire’s greatest sons, who remain at the heart of one of mountaineering’s most enduring mysteries. Peter Elson reports.

ACTION man and novelist Ernest Hemingway once stated: “There are only three true sports: motor racing, bull-fighting and mountaineering. All the rest are merely games.”

He was presumably defining the fact that risk of death validates these pursuits like no other.

Hence the most famous three words in mountaineering occurring when George Leigh Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest?

He allegedly made the retort: “Because it's there.”

Whether Mallory actually said this is not the only enduring mystery about the mountain.

The biggest query of all is whether Mallory, from Mobberley, Cheshire, and his climbing companion, Andrew “Sandy” Irvine, from Birkenhead, reached the peak of the highest mountain on earth.

Mallory and Irvine disappeared high up on the North-East Ridge.

The discovery of Mallory’s body in 1999 revived worldwide speculation of whether they achieved the supreme feat in 1924, some 29 years ahead of Sir Edmund Hillary.

It also stimulated a search for Irvine, but so far the mountain has not given up his body.

Such a discovery is regarded as the Holy Grail of Everest, as it is believed Irvine carried at least one of their two Kodak vest pocket cameras.

This would contain photographic confirmation of reaching the peak, but neither camera has been found.

Now a new exhibition has opened at Birkenhead’s Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, celebrating the lives and achievements of these two world-renowned climbers and their local connections.

Above the Clouds – Mallory & Irvine and the Quest for Everest highlights their doomed attempt to be the first mountaineers to conquer the world’s highest peak.

It is the biggest group of photographs and objects about the two climbers brought together at one venue.

The last sight of the intrepid climbers was on June 8, 1924, when Mallory and Irvine were spotted during a clearing in the mist “going strong for the top” of Mount Everest.

They were only a few hundred yards from the summit.

The duo were never seen alive again, but the “did-they-didn’t they succeed” remains a leitmotif whenever their names are mentioned.

Along with the First World War poet Wilfred Owen, Birkenhead can claim to have been home to these world-famous heroes.

Not only was Irvine’s family home in South Park Road (latterly the ESWE Club) and he studied at Birkenhead School, but Mallory’s father was later a vicar in central Birkenhead and his son visited him here.

“The exhibition reflects on the lives and achievements of these two remarkable men,” says Colin Simpson, Williamson curator.

“We show Irvine and Mallory’s strong Birkenhead and Cheshire connections.

“Also, we track how their lives were shaped by their upbringing and their college years.” The exhibition came about after Matt Wheeler, curator at Northwich’s Salt Museum Northwich and a keen mountaineer, asked Colin if he would jointly support the project.

“We did a small Irvine and Mallory exhibition when Birkenhead Town Hall opened as Wirral Museum,” says Colin.

“That triggered a lot of local interest and, ironically, this exhibition was destined for the Wirral Museum prior to its closure.

“So this is the first time the Williamson has marked Irvine’s and Mallory’s achievements with a show. ”