Fallen

George Mallory and the Tragic 1924 Everest Expedition

Mick Conefrey

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Year: 2024
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9781639366361
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

An authoritative, myth-piercing study of the world-famous explorer George Mallory, who disappeared on Mount Everest in 1924. In the years following his disappearance near the summit of Mount Everest in June 1924 at the age of thirty-seven, George Mallory was elevated into a legendary international hero.Dubbed "the Galahad of Everest, " he was lionized by the media as the greatest mountaineer of his generation—a man who had died while taking the ultimate challenge. His body was only recovered in 1999 and there is still speculation about whether he made it to the summit. Handsome, charismatic, and daring, Mallory was a skilled public speaker, athlete, technically-gifted climber, a committed Socialist, and a supremely attractive figure to both men and women. His friends ranged from the gay artists and writers of the Bloomsbury group to the best mountaineers of his era.But that was only one side to him. Mallory was also a risk-taker who, according to his friend and first biographer David Pye, could never get behind the wheel of a car without trying to overtake the vehicle in front; a climber who pushed himself and those around him to the limits; a chaotic technophobe who was forever losing or mishandling equipment; a man who led his porters to their deaths in 1922, as well as his young climbing partner Andrew Irvine only two years later.So who was the real Mallory? What were the forces that made him and ultimately destroyed him? Why did the man who, in 1922, denounced oxygen sets as "damnable heresy" himself perish on an oxygen-powered summit attempt two years later? And perhaps most importantly, what made him return to Everest for his third and final attempt?Using diaries, letters, memoirs, and thousands of contemporary documents, Fallen is a gripping forensic investigation of Mallory's last expedition that, at long last, separates the man from the myth.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Prologue
• Chapter 1: About a Boy
• Chapter 2: Go West
• Chapter 3: The Two Georges
• Chapter 4: To Go or Not to Go
• Chapter 5: The Long March
• Chapter 6: Cold Comfort
• Chapter 7: Trapped
• Chapter 8: There
• Chapter 9: The Boys from Birkenhead
• Chapter 10: Your Ever Loving George
• Chapter 11: The Searchers
• Chapter 12: A Tale of Two Photos
• Chapter 13: About a Man
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Bibliography and Sources
• Index
• Copyright