The Everest Mystery: Sandy Irvine, George Mallory, and the Truth Still Buried on Everest

by Julie Summers, Jochen Hemmleb

The unsolved mysteries of George Mallory, Sandy Irvine, and their legendary 1924 Everest expedition

There is no mystery more compelling in the history of mountaineering than the disappearance of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine close to the summit of Mount Everest on June 8, 1924. Over 100 years after they were last seen ‘going strong for the top,’ the question of exactly what happened to them on that fateful day has not been answered.

George Mallory’s frozen remains were discovered in 1999. But in September 2024, a climber found an old boot lying out in the open on the Central Rongbuk Glacier on Mount Everest, several miles from where Mallory lay. The boot contained a foot, and a sock bearing a nametape spelled out in A.C. IRVINE.

Did Mallory and Irvine reach the summit—becoming the first to do so—or did they perish while ascending? What happened to the camera that Irvine may have carried, which would have documented their climb? The Everest Mystery explores the life of Sandy Irvine, his relationship with George Mallory, and the many theories about what happened to them so close to the summit of Mount Everest. Above all, it restores Sandy Irvine to his place in the great mystery of Everest 1924.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Nature, Biography, Mountaineering, Adventure, Travel

350 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 25, 2026

About the author

I was born near Liverpool and grew up first on the Wirral and then in Cheshire. Although the greater part of my childhood was spent outside pursuing any number of outdoor activities, I have always wanted to be a writer.

I am passionate about writing and unembarrassed to be so. I love researching my books, especially when they involve meeting people and finding out about their lives. I have a little study in the attic of our house with one of the best views in Oxford – the dreaming spires seen from Iffley. I write in the mornings after the children have gone to school and find the problem is not sticking to the routine but tearing myself away from writing at the end of the day. I describe myself as a biographer and historian but the most important thing for me is to be a story teller.

Reviews

[MarilynW]

The Everest Mystery: Sandy Irvine, George Mallory, and the Truth Still Buried on Everest
by Julie Summers and Jochen Hemmleb
Narrated by Julie Summers with Jochen Hemmleb

As someone very interested in non extreme endurance sports for myself, I've always also been interested in the feats of those who tackle things I'd never dream of doing. Climbing Mount Everest, even in this day and age when so many have done it, has always interested me from afar. I hadn't read about any one climber in depth and I consider this book as a great place for me to jump into learning more about the earliest men to tackle Mount Everest.

I can get grumpy when fiction doesn't give us all the answers but real life often does not give us all the answers either, no matter how many years (a century) and how many people and how many dollars (millions) have been spent to try to find the answers to whether twenty two year old Sandy Irvine and George Mallory, an experienced Mount Everest climber, ever made it to the top of Mount Everest. We don't know if they did because they never made it down to tell anyone if they did. Not only that, their bodies were missing for years so tracking their actual steps was impossible without knowing where their bodies ended up and how they got there.

Author Julie Summers is Irvine’s great-niece and she's already written about Sandy Irvine in an earlier book of his life. At a young age, Jochen Hemmleb, became obsessed with Irvine and Mallory and what happened to them and even when busy living his life in other ways, he never let go of his research and literal searching to find their bodies. In the second part of the book, after Irvine and Mallory have lost their lives somewhere near the top of the mountain, we begin learning about others attempting to climb Mount Everest and looking for the bodies of Irvine and Mallory. I was thrilled that the end of the book contains a discussion between Summers and Hemmleb. There is Summers and how what happened to Sandy affected her family and then there is Hemmleb who was able to find himself on the way up Mount Everest and in actual locations where Sandy and Mallory were decades earlier. And then he and Summers worked on this book together. Hearing his talk about his journey from being a teenage boy to now, with his obsession with these two men, felt so emotional and was a wonderful way to end a nonfiction book that does not give us all the answers because no one has all the answers.

But we do find out some facts, some straight from the written words of both Sandy and Mallory but also from those who knew them and were with them for some of their climbs. Items have been found, pictures have been analyzed, measurements have been made, re-creations of potential routes have been attempted and we get lots of opinions from those who have the knowledge to form those opinions. I was fascinated with this book and I have no idea if Summers is a professional narrator (I guess she is now with this book, at least) but she does a great job with the narration of the book. And hearing the emotion in Hemmleb's voice just added to all that I learned about Irvine and Mallory. I mostly listened to the audiobook but had the ebook right in front of me which was helpful for terms unfamiliar to me and all the talk of altitude (be prepared for lots of mentions of the altitude).

Publication August 25, 2026

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, SMP Early Readers, and NetGalley for this ARC

[Matt]

“Today, most people think of Mount Everest as an overcrowded, commercialized mountain. Pictures of luxurious base camps and queues of climbers lining the windswept, narrow summit ridges have flooded the internet. What was once regarded as the ultimate challenge of human endeavor has become a consumer product with a hefty price tag. In 1902, the year of Sandy Irvine’s birth, the situation was very different…”
- Julie Summers and Jochen Hemmleb, The Everest Mystery: Sandy Irvine, George Mallory, and the Truth Still Buried on Everest

In 1856, the British Great Trigonometrical Survey of India designated Mount Everest – known to Tibetans as Chomolungma, to Nepalis as Sagarmatha – as the tallest mountain in the world. The urge to climb this peak followed shortly thereafter, but it was not until after the First World War that concerted efforts were made to accomplish this wholly unnecessary task. Despite a number of attempts, no one successfully summited Mount Everest until 1953, when Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the top as part of the ninth British expedition to the mountain.

In the years since, many others have repeated the feat. By the late twentieth century, climbing Everest had become a commercial enterprise, with private tour groups charging tens of thousands of dollars to haul privileged amateurs to the roof of the world. In the twenty-first century, conquering Everest says less about human endurance than it does about the distribution of capital. Reaching this pinnacle is no longer a romantic symbol of mankind’s aspirations, but a gross reflection of look-at-me culture as practiced by those whose bank accounts bulge with disposable wealth.

Things were different back in 1924, when George Leigh Mallory and Sandy Irvine marched to their deaths on Everest’s slopes, clad in gabardine and cotton and silk. Compared to the equipment of modern expeditions, it can seem like the two men were rawdogging the mountain. Given their rudimentary kit, it is not entirely surprising that Mallory and Irvine failed to survive a climb that is still exceptionally dangerous, even in an age of advanced technology.

The losses of Mallory and Irvine were accepted as part of the cost of exploration. Climbing moved on without slowing a bit. Nevertheless, over a hundred years later, the fate of these two young men endures as mountaineering’s greatest mystery. It is not so much the fact of their deaths that matters, but what they did before dying. In short, the question lingers: did they reach the top before they reached their ends?

The Everest Mystery by Julie Summers and Jochen Hemmleb is quite up front in disavowing an irrefutable answer. Indeed, the acknowledgment is right there in the subtitle. With that said, they have provided an informative and readable look at all the available evidence, and what those scattered clues have to say. To their credit, they are willing to suggest that – our fondest hopes aside – Mallory and Irvine probably never got very close.

***

The Everest Mystery has an interesting structure. The early going is all about setting the context of the doomed climb on June 8, 1924. The backbone of this portion of the book consists of describing the expedition itself, as well as its crucial figures. The reason this is important is twofold. First, simply getting to Mount Everest in those days was a monumental undertaking. Second, the men of the 1924 Expedition were important witnesses. Summers and Hemmleb pay special attention to Noel Odell, the last man to see Mallory and Irvine alive. About an hour past noon on that final day, Odell reported seeing the two on “the last step but one from the base of the final pyramid,” both “going strongly for the top.”

Odell’s sighting has been the source of endless controversy and debate ever since. As a map at the front of the book shows, the route up Everest’s north face has three rocky obstacles that must be surmounted. The first is at 28,097 feet; the second – and most difficult to climb – is at 28,250 feet; and the third is at 28,580 feet. Figuring out which of these steps Mallory and Irvine reached – and which have no relation to the famed “Hillary Step” on the south face – is a big indicator of whether they could have reached the top.

The testimony of Odell implies that Mallory and Irvine had reached the third step, after which they had only to cross the summit snowfield. However, as Summers and Hemmleb note, many modern climbers – including Conrad Anker – highly doubt that these two men had the technical proficiency to get past the second step.

***

Interspersed with the saga of the 1924 Expedition is a mini biography of Sandy Irvine. Irvine is often half-forgotten in the dimness of Mallory’s long shadow. He is also the great-uncle of co-author Julie Summers, who previously published a full-length book on the relation she never had the chance to meet.

Lost at the age of twenty-two, Andrew “Sandy” Irvine did not have much time to forge a lasting reputation. Unlike the others he accompanied, he had not fought in the First World War. More importantly, he had not done a lot of mountaineering. Summers and Hemmleb explain his presence on the expedition by emphasizing Irvine’s mechanical expertise, used to keep the supplemental oxygen breathing apparatuses working.

There is certainly a bit of familial protectiveness in the presentation of Irvine, as well as the inclusion of details not entirely necessary to the book’s purposes. None of this detracts at all from the quality of The Everest Mystery. Still, it takes roughly half of this volume’s length to get to the final climb.

***

Though it is a bit of a wait, Summers and Hemmleb do a fine job tackling the titular “mystery” of Mallory and Irvine’s ascent. Frankly, there is not a whole lot to build a case. The objective findings consist of the resting place of Mallory’s body, the resting place of Irvine’s foot, and the discovery of Irvine’s ice axe. There are also bits of detritus – a crampon, oxygen bottles, and a mitten – that lack any clear provenance, meaning they may or may not be relevant.

Aside from these tangible markers – which provide a general rather than a specific location, since things tend to slide down mountains – we have the subjective reports of various individuals. As noted above, the most important account belongs to Odell, an experienced climber with good eyesight who watched Mallory and Irvine personally. To this Summers and Hemmleb add the fascinating chronicle of the 1960 Chinese Expedition, the first to make it up the north face. This required them to scale the second step by means of a human ladder, and strongly militates against the notion that Irvine and Mallory could have done likewise. Summers and Hemmleb also spend a good deal of time with the eyewitness accounts of Chinese climbers from the 1975 Expedition, who reported seeing “English dead” around 26,500 feet.

From these data points, Summers and Hemmleb construct a plausible scenario regarding what happened to Mallory and Irvine, and how close they came to their goal. Since this is a theory rather than fact, I will say nothing more about it. Suffice to say, the authors are clear-eyed about the realities these two climbers faced.

***

One is always tempted to use the word tragedy to describe premature deaths. I would reject that temptation solely because dying on the world’s highest mountain is highly avoidable. Indeed, one might even say it is a privilege reserved to a fraction of the earth’s population.

Most of us will spend our whole lives laboring for wages. Many of us will die at unliked jobs without any corresponding edification. Mallory and Irvine died doing what they loved. It is doubtful they would have changed that. Few of us will be able to say the same.

[Chris]

“The Everest Mystery: Sandy Irvine, George Mallory, and the Truth Still Buried on Everest”, written by Julie Summers, the grand niece of Sandy Irvine, is an investigation into the disappearance of the climbers on June 8, 1924. The experienced British mountaineer George Mallory and the relatively inexperienced Sandy Irvine were part of the third team since 1922 to try to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, designated the tallest mountain on the planet by an 1855 survey . Everest was divided between Tibet and Nepal and Mallory’s team climbed from the north side for the simple reason that Tibet was open for exploration since 1921 while the Nepal side was closed. Mallory was the expedition leader but after months of preparation Irvine showed his value to the team through his sheer strength and his ability in preparing oxygen canisters which were viewed as absolutely necessary by successive climbing expeditions. He was tapped to accompany Mallory to the top. Leaving their team at Camp 6 at about 5:30 AM they were last seen at about 12:30 PM, two dots in the distance and making slow progress up the north side of the mountain. They were not seen again until 75 years later in 1999 when Mallory’s body was discovered by another Everest climbing party.

But if they climbed together what happened to Sandy Irvine? And did they make it to the summit, beating Sir Edmund Hillary by 29 years, only to then die on the descent? Julie Summers was the holder of all the Sandy Irvine family documents. When she received a call one morning in 2024 telling her that Irvine’s boot from the climb had been discovered she immediately went back to the documents comparing the site of the boot discovery with sitings of previous expeditions that claimed to have found dead bodies on various parts of Mt. Everest. More importantly she wanted to see if, in fact, Mallory and Irvine were the first to reach the top. Key to the discovery was if Mallory or Irvine had in their possession the small camera given to them by a team member on which they might have taken photos of the view from the summit.

To date, no camera has been found. But the mystery deepens in that when Nepal allowed climbers to access Mt. Everest from their side in 1949, this became the preferred route for climbers. Sir Edmund Hillary became the first to reach the summit from there in 1953. But the Tibet route was never shut down and in the early 1960s several Chinese expeditions attempting to reach the summit claimed to have stumbled upon frozen, dead bodies on the mountain. Some were even identified as European because they were wearing suspenders. But by the 1960s most of the climbers at that point would have been European anyway and there was a good chance that Mallory and Irvine would have been the bodies discovered. But if their bodies were discovered was the camera discovered too? There are rumors and legends that the camera was found but that the Chinese have hidden it away to amplify Chinese accomplishments on Everest.

Who knows? “The Everest Mystery” is a delicious book about a puzzle that has not been completely solved. While much is already known about George Mallory the book is more a biography of the lesser known Sandy Irvine and his soaring accomplishments during a short but fascinating life. Maybe if the camera is ever found and the film inside can be adequately developed we might find that Irvine’s and Mallory’s expedition was triumphant after all.

[MauiBeachReads]

I have a strange obsession with all things Mt. Everest. I am captivated by these true stories of risktaking and danger.. I can’t even imagine undertaking such an endeavor myself. I just find it fascinating. What drives people to do these highly risky activities, meet near death obstacle after near death obstacle, and keep going back for more? I love reading books about this and watching all the documentaries. And the earliest explorers like George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, who attempted it so long ago without the advanced equipment and technology we have today and tragically lost their lives in the endeavor – just heartbreaking, while also so awe-inspiring. If you’re like me, and enjoy reading about high adventure, this one is right up your alley! I especially loved that it is more focused on Irvine as so much of the focus historically has been on Mallory. This book focuses more on Sandy’s life. Co-author Julie Summers is, after all, Irvine‘s great niece, which gives the story that much more emotion and meaning. It covers the details of the expedition, but also includes detailed information about Irvine’s private life, and excerpts from personal correspondence between him and family members. Meticulously researched, this is an excellent account of the tragic Mallory expedition. Highly recommend. The audiobook narration by co-author Julie Summers was excellent and lends an even more personal feel to the experience.

[Elle]

Overall, this was a good but not spectacular story.

The first half of the book was quite slow. This is probably down to the TikTokification of my brain, but I have increasingly less patience for extensive backstory for books that focus on a singular event like this one: the hunt for two explorers who disappeared out of thin air. A little bit of backstory to understand the characters is important, but I want the majority of the book to focus on the expedition and the search. There was so much backstory in this book that it took away from some of the enjoyment.

On the other hand, once I got to the second part of the book (the expedition and resulting century-long search for the missing adventurers), I really enjoyed it. There’s great tension and pacing in this section, though I do wish it had been written in a slightly more narrative fashion.

I had the pleasure of listening to this as an audiobook and really enjoyed the author’s narration. The British English added a lovely layer to the story, which focuses on two British explorers after all :)

In short, I’d say if you’re particularly interested in this topic, you’ll really enjoy this book. If you’re expecting a riveting story like Into Thin Air, you may still like it but may want to heavily skim the first half.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advance audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

[chamelodius]

On the whole an interesting and very thorough treatment of the famous "mystery" of Mallory and Irvine's disappearance on Mt Everest. Quite a few years ago I read a lot of mountineering/adventure narratives, kicked off by a fascination with Krakauer's Into Thin Air, but somehow I never knew all that much about this, probably because I was more focused on modern stories about the mountain. But I've always had a deep interest in Everest, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

It starts with a bit of history on British attempts at Everest, including the 1922 expedition that Mallory was a part of, and the background for selection for the 1924 expedition. Once our main players get underway, there's a section where the story of their trek from Darjeeling through Tibet was interspersed with chapters that were more biographical about Sandy Irvine. I understand why—it does give context to who Sandy was and the background that led him to this and, perhaps more importantly, one of the coauthors of this book is his grand-neice. So it's only natural that it focuses more on Sandy than Mallory, complete with some family stories. However, it does end up feeling a little unbalanced in that first third, because the same consideration is not provided for any of the other members of the expedition. I can understand why the majority of the members were not focused on, but Mallory is the second name in this subtitle. It would have been nice for him to get equal billing in the narrative, too.

Summers and Hemmleb carefully reconstructed every movement on the mountain based on the climbers' notes, which sometimes got a little confusing to be honest—back and forth from this camp and that—but it was very thorough and painted a vivid picture of how excruciating that experience would have been. The back half of the book is all about how the mystery has unfolded, following each thread of rumor and evidence, through the finding of Sandy Irvine's boot and foot. Unfortunately there's still some withheld information about that find that even Summers hasn't been privy to. I would have liked perhaps a bit more theorizing at the end about how Sandy's foot could have ended up where it did (even roughly), because it was a little hard to parse how this find fit into all the other evidence. In the end, the mystery still lives on and, as Summers points out, it probably always will.

I feel like this was a fair, balanced, and thorough coverage of the events, and I learned quite a bit, including about things like the Chinese north face attempts. The "mystery" part in the last half I could hardly put down. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone interested in the history of Everest, mountain climbing, or just intrigued by real life mysteries.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Samantha]

2.5✨ True to who I am, if it’s about Mt Everest, I’m going to read it.

This is a mix between a biography of Sandy Irvine and an analysis of his and George Mallory’s Everest attempt in 1924.

I was lost for so much of this book because it jumped around with different climbers, different timelines, and went in and out of Sandy’s life pre-Everest, all mixed in with trying to account for what happened that day. This book could have used a more cohesive approach, a timeline, and better editing and execution. I was thrown in and out of the story with having to spend so much time figuring out what the point of the information was. Since it is not a firsthand account, there is a lot of hypothesizing which makes sense but the amount of journal entries and quotes that are mixed within the text don’t flow well. Overall this didn’t do it for me but it might work for you. Out 8/25.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press & NetGalley for providing me a free copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Charlotte]

It was... ok.

It started out with a really strong promise, but along the way things got pretty muddled.
Julie Summers (the primary author) is related to Sandy Irvine and it feels like she's too close to the story she wants to tell to tell it in a objective, believable way.

The last few chapters feel awkward as the language changes to third person, talking about what "Julie and/or Jochen" thinks. I'd actually forgotten that there was another author on the book, and it feels like a better way to include him would have been to keep the first person language and then say "my co-author Jochen thinks" for instance.

There was one really funny detail in the book. Apparently there are rumors that Mallory and Irvine had a homosexual relationship. This has caused a small gay panic in Summers which leads to a (unintentionally?) funny section where she outlines that Sandy Irvine was a hot piece of ass but that doesn't mean that he had a relationship with Mallory or that Mallory was attracted to him. Just because the man had a gay relationship when he was young, didn't mean that he was gay! He was married with kids at this point!

[Socraticgadfly]

2.25 with fractional stars to make sure it stays under 2-star reviews under the new system.

I saw this book, and grabbed it at the library because I remember reading about the discovery of Irvine's remains in 2024.

The book is partially biography of him, but, not enough to fully be that.

It's in part about the search for Mallory, whose body was confirmed in 1999, then the search for Irvine after that. (Some people thought it might have been Irvine at first in 1999.)

Third, it's about the primary author, Jochen Hemmleb, and his participation in previous search expeditions. As such, it's also a riff off a previous volume of his.

Got all that?

So, I skipped much of Irvine's pre-Everest life. I skipped most of the story on the pre-1924 treks, and the post-1924 treks from the north side, because they didn't really have the ability or time to search that hard for the pair.

OK, so, that leaves not much more than a long magazine article, like for a mountaineering mag.

And, the takeaways?

First? Contra Hemmleb's previous book, there's no real mystery. It seems clear the pair didn't make the summit and almost certainly didn't even clear the Second Step. There might be a minor mystery as to exact details of their deaths, but, that's not a big one. They got caught in a storm, per retrospective weather data, fairly late in the day, and running low on oxygen. They fell, roped together, and somehow the rope broke, and most likely, Mallory had a further fall. The much less experienced Irvine was up shit creek without a paddle after that.

Second? Optical illusions, perhaps even hallucinations, colored recollections of previous treks. What? Such things happen at 8,000 or even 8,500 meters, even if you're on oxygen? Shock me.

Third, this photo on Wiki will show just how far Mallory fell. (No such photo on Irvine's page.)

Fourth, mountaineering conspiracy theories are fun! Especially with a dash of Cold War-ism inserted.

Fifth? The shock or disgust the British stiff upper lips felt when they saw pictures of Mallory's semi-nekkid body when discovered in 1999? Seriously, what did you expect after 75 years of exposure on Everest? Ditto for Summers, the co-author of this book, and adding 25 years to that?

Since we're at the 60th anniversary of Star Trek?

"He's dead, Jim."

[James Lam]

Extremely well researched. Fascinating insight into the lives of Mallory and Irvine, and a compelling account of everything that has happened since.

[Frédérique]

A fascinating account telling us of the 1924 Mount Everest Expedition - which, unfortunately - ended in tragedy. The young Oxford rower and chemistry student Sandy Irvine, together with renowned rock climber and 'Everest veteran' George Mallory, attempt to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain. But they vanish into thin air. Much, much later, traces of them are found scattered on the highest parts of the mountain: an oxygen bottle, an ice axe and a woolen mitten. The only confirmation of their ascent we have is a sighting by fellow expedition member Noel Odell - and during the years, he repeatedly altered his statements.

I don't know why this mystery fascinates me so much. I know nothing about mountaineering and carry absolutely no desire to ever even come close to Mt Everest. I just find it incredibly tragic that two young men - one with a family and one with a bright future ahead - decide to risk it all and go for the summit where no one had been ever before. I find it tragic that no one knows if they succeeded. Did they have an accident on the way down? Did they get lost in the snowstorm later during the day? Did they find a way to surmount the crux of the route, now known as the Second Step? Did they take the skyline route? Why did they leave so late in the day?

The point is that there's so much contradictory evidence in this case - and a lot of conspiracy theories, come to that. What do the 2008 Beijing Olympics have to do with us not having all the answers? Where is the camera Sandy Irvine was carrying? Where there multiple cameras? Where's the photograph of Ruth Mallory? Where even is Sandy Irvine? What do we have to make of all these stories by Chinese climbers claiming they had found an old body on the slopes, and why can we not find it now?

What this book does really well is providing us with a sort of biography of Sandy Irvine's life. In most narratives about this expedition that I could find, it is always about George Mallory, the great rock climber and his partner Sandy Irvine. Sandy always seemed to be the afterthought, not the centre. This book really shifts that idea and puts a young, enthusiastic and athletic 22-year-old chemistry student in the middle of the story.

At parts, the book was confusing - especially when it delved into to all the differing testimonies by Chinese climbers who all individually claimed to have found a body on certain heights. I could not keep track of who was who, and certain obvious points were not really picked up on. Why, for example, would the Chinese go to such extraordinary lengths to lie about them finding Irvine - if they did - and perhaps the camera? This book never seems to discuss that element.

All in all, the story of Irvine and Mallory is a tragic one. The mystery will probably never be solved. We don't know if they summitted or not. But, as every mountaineer knows, getting to the summit is optional - getting back down is mandatory.

[BethFishReads]

Ever since I read Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, I've had a fascination with Mt. Everest and the people who hope to make it to the summit.

The desire to conquer the highest peak is well over 100 years old. Two of the most famous mountaineers who attempted to be the first to reach the summit are George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, last seen on June 8, 1924, on the high slopes of Mt. Everest. For a century, the world has wondered if the pair ever reached the top and what happened to them on the last day of their lives.

Author Julie Summers, a great-niece of Irvine's, along with mountaineering expert Jochen Hemmleb, attempt to answer these questions with a focus on Sandy Irvine and his contributions to the British Everest expedition. Relying on Irvine's journals and letters, supplemented by photographs, other firsthand accounts, and modern-day discoveries, they reconstruct the entire expedition in detail from the start to the day Mallory and Irvine were lost.

The authors present a well-rounded view of who Irvine was: his skills, his personality, and his hopes. We also learn quite a lot about 1920's climbing technology, including clothing, oxygen apparatus, tents, and other gear. We meet the local men hired to help carry supplies as well as the other members of the British team.

Next, the authors turn to other summit attempts made from that side of Everest, primarily from Chinese teams. The authors discuss rumors (did the Chinese find the bodies?) and facts (the discovery of Irvine's axe) and offer their interpretations. They describe the discovery of Mallory's body and Irvine's boot and talk about what these finds tell us about the men's last day. Finally, the authors offer their theory of whether Mallory and/or Irvine ever made it to the top of Everest.

While I admit to getting a little lost in the details (I'm not a mountaineer), I was amazed at the conditions under which the British team made their climb. A hundred years later, with better science, technology, and communication, an Everest summit attempt can still be fatal. For Mallory and Irvine, the odds of success were much greater. In addition, I was interested in the Chinese connection: the politics, rumors, and questionable memories.

All in all, a book worth reading for any Everest enthusiast.

The audiobook was read by author Julie Summers. While she is clearly not a professional voice actor, her diction was clear and her delivery was engaging. I particularly liked the audiobook bonus conversation between the authors, which emphasized their personal connections to the Sandy Irvine story.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for a print galley. The audiobook is my personal collection.

[Kandace]

In 1924, there was a British Expedition to summit Mount Everest. On this expedition, three attempts to summit were made; with Edward Norton setting a world altitude record on the first two attempts. The third attempt, and perhaps the most famous and mysterious attempt, was done by George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine. George Mallory and Sandy Irvine would never leave the mountain after this attempt. Mallory and Irvine disappeared close to the summit on June 8, 1924. They were seen "going strong" to reach the peak, but 100 years later and there is still no definitive answer on if they reached the summit, how they died, or what exactly happened to them. In 1999 George Mallory's frozen remains were found, showing fatal injuries. But where was Sandy Irvine? This answer would be somewhat answered 25 years later. September 2024, on the Central Rongbuk Glacier of Mt. Everest--several miles from Mallory's location--, a climber found an old boot containing a foot and a sock with a nametape. On this tag read A.C. IRVINE. Sandy had been found.

Over 100 years since their expedition and deaths, the question of whether Mallory and Irvine reached the summit (which would've made them the first) has never been answered. Sandy Irvine carried a camera to document their attempt, but where is it? 100 years later and there are still more questions than answers.

5/5 stars.
The Everest Mystery was written by Julie Summers and Jochen Hemmleb. Jochen Hemmleb, who was fascinated by the mystery and was on the expedition in 1999 that found George Mallory and three expeditions to find Sandy Irvine. Julie Summers, a historian and biographer of Sandy Irvine, the Irvine family spokesperson, and (most-importantly) the great-niece of Sandy Irvine himself. Summers and Hemmleb explore Irvine's life, his relationship with George Mallory, their eventual find, and the theories surrounding their attempt. Not only that, but Sandy Irvine's legacy in the expedition is brought back to light.
Prior to this book, I had only ever truly known the name George Mallory. The finding of his body was so famous. The fact that there have been bodies on Everest for years has never been a secret. I remember vaguely hearing about the foot that was found in 2024, but it feels like a blip in my mind. The Everest Mystery does great on reminding everyone that Sandy Irvine was just as important on the expedition, and that he was a part of this mystery. He shouldn't be lost to history. He and George Mallory ascended together. Summers and Hemmleb do a great job bringing attention to his life and his part in the expedition. Perhaps one day, the mystery of what happened and if they summited will be answered. And I sincerely hope Julie Summers and Jochen Hemmleb are here to see it.

[Samantha]

This is well written and there are some interesting bits to the story, but the “mystery” here feels like a real bait and switch.

There’s no real reveal here and though this was in a sense unsolved, the mystery here was more about finding proof of what everyone reasonably suspected rather than coming to any grand and exciting conclusion.

I liked the first half of this book more than many reviewers seemed to, as I really enjoy the contextual information about how one gets involved with something like an Everest expedition during this time period.

There’s a part of me that loves the gentlemen explorers and another part that thinks this is the 100-years-ago version of today’s tiresome Men Who Want to Go to Space,” but there’s a lot of intriguing detail either way.

The actual “solve” of the mystery in the second half was far less interesting, lacking the on-mountain drama of something like Into Thin Air. And as is all too common, the author’s involvement in his own story clouded his judgment as to what was book-worthy, something that probably should have been reined in by his co-author or an editor.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[Biggus]

Here's a radical idea. At the start of the book, explain feet, yards and metres, then just stick to whichever was used in the context. This would mean the book would be CONSIDERABLY SHORTER, because you wouldn't have to explain this many many dozens of times, again and again, over and over, AND do it inconsistently and often inaccurately. FFS, do editors actually read books and point stuff like this out?

This hellishly annoying point aside, this is an excellent book.

[Dan]

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this book that is both an exploration of why people venture out of their safe zones, climb mountains, explore the unknown, a biography of a man whose fate is still uncertain and the obsession we have to closure to know things that might be unknowable, and the drive we have to understand.

As a person who loves his couch, I am a huge fan of books about nature and man's attempt to conquer it. Nautical tales, tales of exploration, from the tops of mountains to the deepest depths of the sea I am a huge fan. I love the science, the tech needed, to read about explorers setting off without even a compass, something in our GPS days we really don't understand. The risks that people took to see the unknown, to know what was in the jungle, to see the depths, and take in the view from the highest points on the planet. What never factored into these stories, at least to me is the cost to those who were left behind. The families and friends. Those who never saw the tops of the mountains, and in fact never saw their loved explorers ever again. The loss they carried, and the world carried these explorers as lost heroes. And what a obsession knowing what these last moments of these brave adventurers lives were, and how these drove so many to enter these same places not for glory, but for answers. The Everest Mystery: Sandy Irvine, George Mallory, and the Truth Still Buried on Everest by Julie Summers and Jochen Hemmleb is the story of a man, an expedition to the top of the world, what might have happened, and the need to understand what did, something that has driven many over the last century.

The book is a look at the life of Sandy Irvine, the Everst Expedition of 1924, and what came after. The first part is a biography of Sandy Irvine who accompanied George Malloy an attempt at climbing Everest. Irvine came from a large family, and might have had dyslexia, which made regular learning uninteresting, but science and tinkering came naturally, a gift that helped him into Oxford. Irvine was a sportsman, and had gained a love of adventure on a exploration of Norway, which put him in the running for a part of the Everest Expedition, where Irvine and Malloy met their fate. The book looks at what might have happened to the two men. Did they make the summit? Did only one? To answer these questions many have made theories, even searched the mountains, but still only questions remain.

A fascinating book that is a bit biography, a bit adventuring tale, and a tale of what mysteries and that lack of closure do to people. The author Julie Summers is the great-niece of Sandy, and goes deeply into what the death of Sandy did to his family. Irvine's sister could never talk of Sandy, even to her children, her husband was also Sandy's best friend, and openly mourned his loss. Jochen Hemmleb the other writer became fascinated with the Everest Expedition at a young age, buying books, looking at maps, and taking an interest in mountain climbing. The book is really well written. The climbing scenes have a taste of authenticity, with a real understanding of what life is like at high altitudes. The hacking out of the lining of throats due to the cold, the confusion of snow, lack of sleep and oxygen. Along with the many, many theories of what might have been. And mysteries. Numerous body sightings. Even a rumor of Chinese climbers not wanting to lose their spot in the record books, bringing Irvine's body down the mountain. All of this is detailed, and told in a way that never becomes overwhelming of repetitive.

A book for couch adventurers, and for those who want to understand how people can ger wrapped up in things. As one person in the book says, I hope we never find out what happened. To many that is unacceptable. There needs to be answers. Even when only the dead know the truth.

[Bookreporter.com Biography & Memoir]

When I was in high school, I went with a group of friends to Central Texas to camp at a place called Enchanted Rock. It’s a local landmark about 1,800 feet above sea level. I don’t remember whose idea it was to climb it, but I gave it a try and got about halfway up without any hiking boots, rope or carabiners. I thought to myself, If I climb any farther up this thing, I am going to hurt myself very badly. And that was the end of my career as a mountaineer, which I have never regretted.

According to Wikipedia, there are approximately 200 dead people lying on the ground of Mount Everest, mummified by the cold, dry air. One of them --- which doesn’t come up in this book --- has been there since 1996. He was identified just this year as Dorje Morup, an Indo-Tibetan border policeman. “The body became known as Green Boots,” the Wikipedia editors tell us, “because of the distinctive green mountaineering boots associated with it. For many years, it was regarded as a landmark on the northeastern approach to the summit.” (This anecdote has done nothing at all to convince me that mountaineering is a fun thing to do.)

THE EVEREST MYSTERY is about two other lives lost on Everest from a doomed expedition a little over 100 years ago: George Mallory, who famously said that he wanted to climb Everest because it was there, and Sandy Irvine, the youngest member of his team. They perished trying to become the first to scale the summit of the Himalayan mountain. They weren’t the first victims of Everest --- seven porters were killed in a 1922 avalanche --- but they are undoubtedly the most famous.

Mallory’s body was found in 1999 as part of an Anglo-American expedition with the twin goals of creating a film documentary and finding a Kodak camera that the men carried with them, which might be proof of whether or not they reached the summit first. A more recent 2024 expedition --- which is the initial incident in the book --- found one of Irvine’s boots, with his foot still inside it, on an expansive glacier.

The prospective reader might ask, “Well, what’s so mysterious about this?” Mallory and Irvine died within the high reaches of Everest known as “the death zone,” and it isn’t called that for nothing. Mallory’s body was badly injured, the probable result of a fall. Case closed. But what is open for discussion is if either of them summited the mountain before they died. This turns out to be a very technical question with a lot of moving parts. The authors of THE EVEREST MYSTERY are Julie Summers, a great-niece of Irvine, and Jochen Hemmleb, a self-confessed Everest obsessive.

There is a lot to recommend here. The book is full of British pluck and understatement, as well as eccentric, driven characters. It's about adventure on the world’s highest peak, and the central question of whether or not it was sporting to use oxygen on the climb. (It turns out to be 10 times more dangerous not to use oxygen.) Climbing Everest in that era was a romantic enterprise; today it’s a commercial experience.

There is a lot of data for the casual reader to sift through. Details of later Chinese expeditions where climbers may or may not have seen dead bodies. Complex descriptions of climbing obstacles. Peculiarities of the local landscape. The ambition of THE EVEREST MYSTERY is to present all of the relevant facts that can be known, which it achieves splendidly and with a fair degree of clarity. It’s a technical masterpiece that, like Everest itself, is going to appeal more to those already knowledgeable about the intricacies of climbing than to those who are more sea-level types.

Reviewed by Curtis Edmonds

[Lance]

One of the greatest mysteries in mountaineering is now more than a century old: did George Mallory and Sandy Irvine reach the summit of Mt. Everest in 1924, twenty nine years before the first recorded ascent by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay? The Everest Mystery doesn’t claim to answer that question, but it offers an excellent account of Sandy Irvine’s life and the subsequent expeditions that uncovered Mallory’s body, Irvine’s shoe and foot, and other equipment belonging to both men. Julie Summers, Irvine’s great niece, and Jochen Hemmleb combine their research and expertise to create a clear, engaging narrative.

Despite what the title might suggest, the authors don’t present a definitive view on whether Mallory and Irvine reached the top. Instead, they draw from Irvine’s letters and diaries, historical records, and Hemmleb’s mountaineering knowledge to craft a book that is part biography, part chronicle of the 1924 expedition, and part investigation into the evidence found since the climbers disappeared.
Irvine was unusually young for the typical English explorer of the era, but he was chosen for his engineering skill, his ability to fix nearly anything, and his willingness to take on whatever tasks were needed — including cooking and porter work. Because Mallory was considering the use of supplemental oxygen for the summit push, Irvine’s technical abilities were especially valuable. Sadly, the pair never returned.

The book’s strongest sections describe the later expeditions that uncovered Mallory’s remains and Irvine’s shoe and foot, along with other clues that have only deepened the mystery. A 1960 Chinese expedition allegedly removed Irvine’s body, according to some accounts, to protect their claim of being the first to reach the summit via the North Col — the same route Mallory and Irvine climbed. To their credit, Summers and Hemmleb avoid sensational accusations and instead present the factual information available about that expedition and others. They also note that the 2024 discovery of Irvine’s boot and foot doesn’t resolve the question of whether the pair reached the summit, though it adds another intriguing piece to the puzzle.

More than a century later, the fate of Mallory and Irvine remains one of mountaineering’s most compelling mysteries. This book offers a thoughtful, well researched look at why the question endures.
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I wish to thank St. Martin’s Press for providing a review copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.


https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Michelle McGrane]

Review of advance copy from NetGalley.

*

Julie Summers is the ideal narrator for “The Everest Mystery: Sandy Irvine, George Mallory, and the Truth Still Buried on Everest” because she is not simply reading a history—she is telling her own family’s story. As the great-niece of Andrew “Sandy” Irvine, the young mountaineer who disappeared alongside George Mallory high on Everest in June 1924, Summers brings an authority and emotional authenticity that few professional narrators could hope to match. She has spent decades researching Irvine’s life, serving as the family’s spokesperson, and previously wrote his biography, “Fearless on Everest”. That intimate connection is audible throughout the performance, lending the audiobook a quiet emotional gravity without ever slipping into sentimentality.

Summers relates the story with the measured assurance of an experienced historian rather than an actor. Her voice is clear, composed and intelligent, allowing the evidence, diaries and eyewitness accounts to retain their authority while drawing listeners steadily into one of mountaineering’s greatest unsolved mysteries. She understands instinctively where to linger over a revealing detail, when to accelerate through moments of expedition drama, and when to allow silence to underline the poignancy of lives cut short.

One of the narration’s greatest strengths is its balance between scholarship and storytelling. The audiobook combines painstaking historical research with the momentum of a detective story, following new discoveries—including the remarkable 2024 identification of Irvine’s boot and foot—and re-examining long-standing theories about whether Mallory and Irvine reached the summit before their deaths. Summers’ restrained delivery helps listeners absorb the technical details without losing sight of the human drama at the heart of the investigation.

Summers’ recounting is also notable for its emotional honesty. Because she has lived with this mystery for much of her life, moments concerning Irvine’s letters home, his optimism, and the family’s decades-long search for answers resonate with quiet conviction. Yet she never overplays these passages. Instead, her calm, thoughtful performance allows listeners to experience both the exhilaration of exploration and the enduring ache of uncertainty.

The result is an audiobook that feels personal while remaining objective. Julie Summers’ combination of historical expertise, familial connection and understated vocal performance makes “The Everest Mystery” an absorbing listening experience, one that honours Sandy Irvine’s legacy while inviting a new generation of listeners into one of the most enduring mysteries in the history of exploration.

“The Everest Mystery” (Macmillan Audio) is scheduled for release on 25 August 2026 and includes an audio-exclusive conversation between Julie Summers and co-author Jochen Hemmleb.

[Kari]

There is a certain sort of peace and connectedness that can be found out on the mountain. Once you have felt its high, it is difficult not to seek out its embrace on a bigger and bigger scale. It is a sort of avarice to stand in rarefied air and do the impossible, to see from a place so very few can reach.

High altitude mountain climbing takes a certain madness to undertake. It has always been a goal of mine to climb Everest, but health and life’s trials have delayed this endeavour. Yet, it doesn’t stop me from obsessing over stories from the mountain, and the mystery of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine is one that regularly grabs my attention.

During the 1924 expedition, seasoned climber Mallory and novice mountaineer Irvine disappeared somewhere after Camp VI. The pair were last seen on a ridge, but how far they were from the peak and if they did indeed summit before meeting their deaths remains an ongoing mystery.

It was the legendary expedition where using oxygen was first attempted with a seasoned crew along with new blood. Yet the expedition was plagued with problems from poor weather, injuries and faulty equipment. Even the question of where Mallory and Irving were last seen only posed new questions to add to an already long list.

In 1999 the body of George Mallory was found and more recently in 2024 a boot on the Central Rongbuk Glacier that belonged to Sandy Irving. As the search for his remains sparked new expeditions and a resurgence for the truth, a great niece of Irving’s and fellow mountaineer documented the lives of the famous climbers and put together the remaining pieces of this mystery.

From Irving’s youth and panache for engineering, to the expedition as documented through letters and what happened after on Everest, this in depth accounting of events solved many mysteries while several still remain. It was an interesting accumulation of research with a catalogue of photos and letters, maps and mysteries.

Like so many others, this mystery has its hooks in me and its mountaineers continue to inspire. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for an eARC and ALC. I found the archived images and documents really fascinating so I would really recommend the book, though the audiobook was narrated by one of the authors and included a discussion between the two that really helped me understand their motivation in solving this mystery and gave the book a very personal touch.

[Janine]

I’d always been intrigued by stories about Mount Everest climbers and climbing itself. I was old enough to hear of Edmund Hillary’s feat of being the first to achieve the summit. But Jeffrey Archer’s novel, Paths of Glory, set me on the path of understanding more about the men, especially George Mallory, who first attempted what Hillary succeeded in doing. Now with this captivating new book, we have a more complete understanding of Mallory’s attempt in 1924 seen through the eyes of his fellow climber, Andrew “Sandy” Irvine who is rarely mentioned but whose remains found in 2024 continue the never ending quest to know if either man reached the summit.

Written by Irvine’s grand niece, we are treated to a history of early mountain climbing preparations which given the pictures of the clothing and tents they used seems amazing they just didn’t freeze. These British men were either fools and foolhardy or men of amazing depth and character from surviving WWI - which in this case is the latter - that made them dare fate. Climbing was almost therapy for them. But Sandy Irvine had been too young to serve and at 22 very inexperienced but Mallory liked his dedication, stamina and picked him for the 1924 expedition over far more experienced men. He was Mallory’s companion climber on June 6, 1924 when they attempted their ascent.

The book pieces together the discovery of Mallory’s body in 1999 and the finding of Irvine’s foot still in a boot. The location of both has helped in surmising their location. The use of oxygen is discussed and while many climbers believed in the purity of the climb nonetheless Mallory and Irvine went with three tanks. Other small things like clamps from shoes that predate 1930 found by climbers add to the puzzle of what happened. The author’s family found a trove of documents saved by Irvine’s younger brother that fills in details too. It’s an amazing story to go through - reading or listening.

There’s often a repetitiveness to the book but that’s a minor flaw given the wealth of information in the book about Everest history. I didn’t much care for the narrator - the author - but the information supplied by her co-author made up for that.

I gave this book five stars for the new information this book gives the world about the 1924 climb, for putting Sandy Irvine back into the history of that climb and fir the enjoyment I got from listening to this book.

[Marsha Rafalski]

In 1924, a team including Sandy Irvine and George Mallory prepared for an assault on Mount Everest. Mallory was a British mountaineer, an experienced climber, who had made two previous attempts to scale the Summit. Sandy (Andrew) Irvine was British explorer and mountaineer who had also had experience on Everest. Sandy, the younger of the two, was almost as experienced and of the climbers on the team, the two of them were the best prepared for a successful climb. They set out on June 8th and were never seen again, creating one of the most enduring mysteries in Everest lore. In 1999, Mallory’s body was discovered and it was determined that he had died from injuries received in a serious fall. Irvine’s foot encased in his boot was found in a further [/search. Various pieces of equipment (ice axe, pieces of clothing, Mallory’s camera) indicate that the two probably made it to the last cliff face before the summit. Some speculate that they made it to the summit and died on the way down.
Using previously unpublished material and new discoveries, Irvine’s great-niece Julie Summers and mountaineering historian Jochen Hemmleb (who was part of the team that found Mallory’s body) have written a narrative account of the expedition from twenty-two year old Sandy’s perspective, challenging misconceptions. They also write about the extraordinary characters involved in the attempt on Everest and reveal fascinating discoveries about what really happened on the men’s final climb.

The book is carefully researched and written with care and deliberation. It is a story of adventure, courage, and determination. Recommend for readers of history, nonfiction, biography, mountaineering, sports, and narrative nonfiction.

[Kathleen Field]

First - thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to this audio ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I have this quiet obsession with Mount Everest that began over 20 years ago when I read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.  While not a climber myself, I became fascinated by those who attempted the world's highest peak, especially those who made the first attempts.  To look at a mountain that raises 29,031 feet into the air and think, "I am going to climb this and reach the summit" takes gawl that I will never know.

When this book, The Everest Mystery, popped up in the NetGalley audiobook selection, I jumped at the chance to learn more about George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, two of the most prominent names in early Everest summit attempts.

I was not disappointed.

Narrated by co-author Julie Summers, her voice lends an authenticity to the harrowing story of the 1924 British Everest expedition.  The book gives a solid biography of Sandy Irvine, the lone missing climber from the 1924 attempt, as well as his companions on this ill-fated attempt.  Astonishing detail is provided by diaries and letters from the crew, as well as Irvine and Mallory themselves.   Later attempts on the summit lend to the mystery of what happened to Mallory and Irvine; and the expeditions to bring their bodies home offer some sense of closure while adding more questions to what happened that June day.  If you're going into this book hoping for answers to one of Everest's greatest mysteries, I will warn you, those answers don't exist, but the story of that 1924 attempt will definitely feed into the need to know more, and give you that much more appreciation for mountaineers who have tried to summit the world's highest peak.

5/5 stars - My only advice - keep a map of Everest nearby to help you visualize where they are.

[ManOfLaBook.com]

For more reviews and bookish posts visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

The Everest Mystery: Sandy Irvine, George Mallory, and the Truth Still Buried on Everest by Julie Summers and Jochen Hemmleb is a serious and well written examination of one of mountaineering greatest question: who was the first to climb the highest mountain in the world. Ms. Summers is a biographer and great-niece of climber Sandy Irvine. Mr. Hemmleb is a respected mountaineering author.

When I first started reading the book, I had no idea who the authors were - I just liked books about mountaineering and especially about Mt. Everest. I found their pairing to be ideal, a balance of Ms. Summers intimate knowledge of the family, and Mr. Hemmleb superb knowledge of mountaineering.

I have heard of the 1934 British Mount Everest expedition and many of the whispers, rumors and theories that went along with it. The authors look at first hand source, such as diaries and letters, and decades of field research to re-evaluates the expedition through modern science and new discoveries which adds weight to their analysis.

Regardless of who climbed first on Mt. Everest, the authors successfully give Sandy Irvine his due. Still young, he was a skilled engineer and a vital member of the expedition which deserves his place of honor in mountaineering history.

The book was also more technical than I was expecting. There's a lot of focus on the oxygen apparatus design, which while extremely important might not interest many readers. It does, however, cements Sandy Irvine's place in history. On the other hand, it slows down the adventure and fast-paced narrative.

The Everest Mystery is a gripping, fascinating book, written by top-tier experts. The authors deliver a grounded, comprehensive analysis of the fate of Ms. Summer's great-uncle (who is also a great uncle to be associated with).

[Elysha Smith]

This was an interesting and very well researched book on the mystery of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine and whether they did summit Everest and how they died.

This book not only delved into the knowns about expedition in 1924 that lead to Mallory and Irvine’s deaths but the lead up into and all the investigations after. As someone who knew only the surface details of this story I found it all very intriguing. I enjoyed the lead up into the expedition and learning more about Irvine and how he ended up getting picked especially.

In terms of the investigations of finding Mallory and Irvine the authors did a great job of compiling and exploring all the evidence available. I particularly enjoyed learning about the Chinese expeditions in the 60s and 70s, as those don’t seem to be as well documented, and what may have been seen. And then there is of course the expeditions in 1999 and later that have found more answers to the mysteries as well as questions.

The authors did a good job of showing well balanced accounts of the different theories about routes that could have been taken and what happened to Mallory and Irvine.

The authors themselves are particularly interesting and have very unique perspectives. Summers is the great niece of Sandy Irvine and has already written a book about him. Hemmleb is an author on mountaineering and has been involved with multiple expeditions on Everest to find Mallory and Irvine, including the 1999. Both of them provide unique perspectives to this story and I liked how the book included parts of both of their involvements.

Overall the narration was good. I did find it very stoic but it did fit the tone of the book as very factual.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Kari]

Thanks to NetGalley for aN ARC of this book!

The Everest Mystery is the best of all worlds: mini biography, mountain climbing expedition story, and detective story.

In the first half to two-thirds of the book, alternating chapters between Sandy Irvine’s life before Everest, early Everest expeditions, and the planning/beginning of the fateful 1924 expedition, tell the life story of both Sandy Irvine and early Mount Everest climbing.

If I was starting to get somewhat bored by a chapter, it would switch perspectives to offer a much needed break. It seems, since Irvine’s life was cut short so early, this approach was the best way to flesh out and link Irvine’s motivations, skill sets, and personality which helped him achieve such success so early in his climbing career.

The last third of the book relates to the expeditions conducted to search for evidence of Mallory and Irvine, as well as the findings of such expeditions and theorizing as to what happened to the two climbers and whether they reached the summit.

I loved how the authors stipulated that we can still never know what happened to Mallory and Irvine or whether the summit was reached, but their analysis of the physical evidence, journal entries from the 1924 expedition, and eyewitness accounts from Chinese expeditions after the 1924 climb but before the North side was reopened to Western climbers was interesting to read.

Although the conclusion is not satisfying (we may still never know) and doesn’t seem to add much more to the previous knowledge base, the book was a satisfying read for fans of mountain climbing literature.

[Sheri]

I will start off this review by advising that I am almost exclusively a fiction reader. While Everest is something I read a lot about and am fascinated by, this was distinctly out of my comfort zone.

The topic was extremely interesting, and it’s clear that the authors feel passionately about it, which makes sense considering their close relationship with Sandy Irvine, Everest itself, and the discoveries related to Mallory and Irvine. A lot of research went into getting as much and as thorough info as possible into this book.

Unfortunately, to me it was just too dry. This is a subject that is endlessly fascinating, but somehow I found myself bored and distracted in the first half. The second half was more engaging (as discoveries started being detailed), but it faded again by the end.

It’s possible that the format (I listened on audio) didn’t help. Hearing the repetition of measurements (and then converted measurements) can get a little tedious and start to lose their meaning - I’ve read a lot on climbing, and I think it’s easier to absorb when reading with eyes. The narration wasn’t bad, but the narrator did have some off-putting pauses, as if reading the text for the very first time and getting caught by an unfamiliar word or unexpected phrasing.

I really enjoyed the conversation at the end of the audiobook with the authors in discussion. I hope a transcription is included in the printed and ebook copies.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an ALC of this book so that I may leave an honest review.

[Tiffany]

I'm heading into the Colorado mountains this week so reading this book this weekend was perfect for my mood!

I have always been curious as to the mystery behind what happened to Sandy Irvine and George Mallory, but what I really loved about this book is the story of the months leading up to the disappearance of the two men and the recorded feelings of the families, friends and community members. There were so many journal entries, eyewitness accounts and other physical evidence provided in this book that while there is nothing new and ground breaking in the book those things listed really made this for an interesting read!

For those that may not know, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine were trying to summit Mount Everest June 6, 1924 but no one knows what happened to them or if they reached the summit. They just simply disappeared and it believed they perished on the 8th or 9th of June by either freezing or taking a tumble down a cliff, both two of my worth fears of being in the mountains.
In 1999 George Mallory's body was found and in 2024 a boot, with a partial foot still incased, was found to be Sandy Irvines because of a nametape in the book "A.C IRVINE". Sandy used to carry a camera with him, so there is hope that one day that one day his body will be found but also the body.

The authors are quite interesting in their own right because Summers is a great niece to Sandy Irvine and Hemmleb is a mountaineer and has been on Everest many times to find traces of Mallory and Irvine. If this book was made into a documentary I would watch it instantly.

[Christine]

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley.

Most books about Everest, when addressing George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, tend to focus more on Mallory and Irvine, while not being ignored comes across as a more shadowy figure. Summers (Irvine’s grandniece) and Hemmleb’s new book corrects this.

Summers and Hemmleb look at the relatively recent discovery of a foot in a book marked A.C. Irvine (relatively because it was made in 2024), but they also go into detail about Irvine’s early life and his life before Everest. He comes across as a person in his own right as opposed to someone working with Mallory.

The authors also go into what happened after – not only in terms of those who tried to solve the mystery of Mallory and Irvine’s climb and deaths – but in those that Irvine left behind. There is also a discussion about the impact on the wider community. Summers and Hemmleb present the various theories and debates about whether or not the men summitted and what might have happened. They do so in such way that if you know nothing about the technical aspects of climbing (like me) you are not lost at all.

The book does an excellent job of adding more detail about the mystery as well as presenting Irvine as a real person.

[Ashley]

The audiobook: The Everest Mystery written by Julie Summers and Jochen Hemmleb was a well researched history that spans over a hundred years of Everest climbing history with a primary focus on George Mallory and Sandy Irvine’s 1924 Everest expedition. I want to specify that going into this title I had very little knowledge of climbing. I found it fascinating to learn about what led up to the Everest expedition as well as the many theories about what happened during the climb. The narrator of this title, Julie Summers, is so easy to listen to. I think she was the perfect choice of narrator for this title. I loved hearing the audio-exclusive bonus interview between the authors at the end of the audiobook. It is very easy to hear how passionate both authors are about the mystery of the 1924 Everest expedition.

It’s truly remarkable what humans can accomplish. I would really recommend this title to anyone whether you're a climbing fanatic or like me, an individual who knows almost nothing about climbing. It is a fascinating book to listen to.

I want to give a huge thank you to NetGalley.com, authors, Julie Summers and Jochen Hemmleb and Macmillan Audio for having the privilege of listening to an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.