By Mark Synnott
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first people to summit Everest and tell the story. But were they really the first to set foot there? A century ago, Andrew Irvine and George Mallory were descending the mountain when they suddenly went missing. Researchers now have evidence that Irvine have tumbled down to a ridge at about 27,700 feet, on the Chinese side. Irvine was recorded to have been carrying a Kodak camera, and since he was climbing 29 years before Hillary and Norgay, it could rewrite history.
Synnott first learned about this possibility at a talk given by his friend. He was skeptical at first, but eventually became intrigued, ending up here, on the mountain, debating whether to risk his life exploring a ridge near the spot Mallory was found, and Irvine still may be. A drone photo taken earlier from a lower point indicated that there was a crevice - but when Synnott went down, off of the protective ropes, it turned out to be just a shiny rock, with a small crack no human could fit inside. Perhaps we will never know the answer to the question of who was first on Everest.
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