By Lance Morrissey

It’s a cold a wintry day in Moray, with a brisk, northwest wind blowing snow showers inland from across the Moray Firth. As a keen outdoorsman, periodic visitor to the mountains and geologist, my mind wanders back to the heroic age of Himalayan exploration and discovery, post First World War, which saw British men battling against Everest. Their aspirations to physically reach the summit were coupled with an intrigue for scientific discovery, including geological curiosity. For those who follow mountaineering, this year marks the 100th anniversary of the 1924 British Mount Everest Expedition that saw George Mallory and Andrew ‘Sandy’ Irvine losing their lives on their famous summit attempt.  

Mallory and Irvine’s final climb is, of course, steeped in mystery – did the duo reach the summit or not? If they did, it was nearly 30 years before the successful ascent and descent by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Speculation as to whether the two boys from Birkenhead (as Mick Conefrey refers to them in his new book Fallen) summited is abounding, with a multitude of books, articles, YouTube videos and publications all picking apart the evidence and ultimately drawing different conclusions. I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I’d say that Mallory’s determination and proven climbing ability, coupled with Sandy’s youth and strength, was enough to propel them to the summit, and that the pair sadly succumbed to a fall when returning to their departure camp, probably in darkness and in a state of exhaustion. Mallory had always promised to leave a photograph of his beloved wife Ruth at the summit – perhaps it is still there frozen in time… 

Mallory’s body was found in 1999 by Conrad Anker, and this year we saw the partial remains of Irvine discovered by a National Geographic team. The pictures from the 1924 expedition reveal men of strength and durability, recovering from the horrors of the First World War, with a passion for adventure, albeit in some of the harshest conditions that exist on Earth. I must admit that the whole summit mystery has become a bit of an obsession of mine and a trek to see Everest with my own eyes is something I’d like to do, if my lungs allow! However, the climbing secrets and ghosts that Everest holds cannot, for a geologist, overshadow the geological wonders that the mountain preserves, which is something that links us back to the 1924 expedition itself.   

Noel Odell was the 1924 expedition oxygen officer in addition to being a geologist and, not only was he the last person to photograph Mallory and Irvine alive (as they were checking their oxygen apparatus at Camp 4), but he was also the last person to see them during their final ascent (as they moved along or near the northeast ridge towards the summit). Noel himself was an accomplished mountaineer and, during that expedition, climbed twice to over 8000m without oxygen. Away from mountaineering and time spent in the army during both World Wars, he worked as a geologist with spells in the mining and petroleum industry, as well as in academia. Odell was one of the first to study the geological structure of Everest, noting the presence of sedimentary rocks towards it summit and metamorphic strata at its base.   

From a geological perspective, the mighty Everest sprang from the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates, with the resultant Himalayan range beginning to rise about 50 MYA. The mountain is made up of a variety of rock types, including metamorphic rocks of the Rongbuk Formation at its base, overlain by sedimentary and metamorphic rocks of the North Col Formation, including the famous yellow band of marble, and finally the summit pyramid comprises dark grey, fossil-rich Ordovician limestones – the Qomalanga Limestone. Odell published a few papers on the geology of Everest, perhaps his best known is from 1925 and is entitled ‘Observations on the rocks and glaciers of Mount Everest’. For those interested, there are also some wonderful clips online of an interview with Noel where he speaks about his Everest experiences – a classic English gent! 

Back in Moray, the icy north wind is a shock as I step outside to the log store for more wood for the stove. I can only imagine what grit, determination and strength those Everest pioneers possessed. Not only had they fought for king and country in scenes unimaginable in the modern world, but they then turned to the Himalayas to endure further challenges in the brutal cold and punishment of high-altitude mountaineering. That great quote from Mallory – ‘Because it’s there’, when asked why he wanted to climb Everest by a reporter in America, resonates with the spirit of the day and the essence of early mountaineering, telling a story of a mountain and men, of geology and time.