Who climbed Everest first? For 75 years, this mystery has tormented the mountaineering community. The answer seems obvious, Sir Edmond Hillary and Tensing Norway, but the title could legitimately belong to someone else. On June 8, 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, two British mountaineers, left Camp VI on Mount Everest with the intention of reaching the summit of the mountain; they never came back. Since Hillary's success, Mallory and Irvine were virtually forgotten, until a successful research expedition in 1999, dedicated solely to solving this mystery, reignited the aspiration to find the answer. Evidence discovered during this expedition proves that George Mallory and Andrew Irvine died descending Mount Everest, after climbing the second step and using oxygen to reach the summit 29 years before anyone else. By analyzing a few simple but crucial pieces of physical evidence discovered during the 1999 recovery expedition, we can conclude that Mallory and Irvine remained alive during their ascent and died during their descent. During the recent expedition, Conrad Anker discovered Mallory's frozen corpse, still clinging to a rock on a steep ledge after 75 years. He was clearly dead because he had fallen from under the 1st step and broken his leg. He was probably with his comrade Irvine when he fell, as the location of his body was below the site where the Irvine ice pick was found in 1993, and there was a rope tied around the body of Mallory who had broken in two (Hemmleb 100). While this means that Irvine's corpse could be somewhere nearby, the broken rope also suggests that their fall occurred during the night. The reason why Irvine and Mallory would have attached themselves together was because they were making sure they didn't have... middle of paper ...... from Odell's observation, they would have still had enough oxygen to reach the summit. Considering that Mallory and Irvine were seen above the second step with less than 1,000 feet remaining and that they had sufficient oxygen, it is now safe to conclude that they were the first men to summit of Mount Everest. George Mallory and Andrew Irvine made history on June 8, 1924. They began the day with a strenuous hike up the north ridge of Mt. Everest at dawn. Then, with the help of oxygen, they climbed the Second Step, a feat that would not be repeated for 36 years, and rushed to the top of the mountain. Eventually, they ran downhill to avoid the darkness, but ran out of oxygen, arrived too late, and inevitably fell to their deaths. But more importantly, on that single day, they became the first men to climb Mount Everest, and the only people to do so for the next 29 years..