https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/01/it-doesnt-make-any-sense-new-twist-in-mystery-of-mount-everest-and-the-british-explorers-missing-bodies
Now there is a new mystery to solve about the fate of Mallory and Irvine: what has happened to their bodies?
Mallory’s was discovered in 1999 by American climber Conrad Anker who left it where it lay; researchers had also zeroed in on the location of Irvine’s resting place. But Jamie McGuinness, who has reached the summit five times from the Tibetan side, said that following an extensive search of the area during an expedition in 2019, he has concluded the bodies of both British climbers were removed at some point in the 2000s.
“Irvine’s body is almost certainly no longer up there,” said McGuinness. “We gave it a good search with drones, and we spotted several other bodies, so we know we weren’t missing anything of the right size.”
and
All those with detailed knowledge of the story agree that if anyone removed the bodies of Mallory and Irvine, it was China’s mountaineering authorities. Negative publicity around corpses abandoned high on the mountain might have been one reason. Yet while Irvine’s remains were close to the modern climbing route, Mallory’s were some distance below and hard to locate. It is more likely connected to longstanding sensitivities in China about the sceptical western reaction to China’s ascent of the mountain more than 60 years ago. What’s more, China literally knew where the bodies were buried.
And if anyone is interested, here is an article (reprint) from the 1924 Popular Science magazine that covered the original attempt.
https://www.popsci.com/science/george-mallory-1924-everest-climb/
