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

by Julie Summers, Jochen Hemmleb

The definitive book on Sandy Irvine and the mystery of his and Mallory’s disappearance on Everest in June 1924.

The fate of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, who were last seen disappearing into the clouds as they headed for the summit of Mount Everest on 8 June 1924, still grips the imagination over 100 years later. Mallory’s body was found in 1999 and Sandy Irvine’s boot and foot were discovered in 2024, becoming an international news story.

Drawing on previously unpublished material and new discoveries, Irvine’s great-niece Julie Summers and mountaineering historian Jochen Hemmleb (who was part of the team that found Mallory’s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 the definitive account of the expedition from twenty-two-year-old Sandy’s perspective, challenging misconceptions about his role. They also bring to life all the remarkable characters involved in the attempt on Everest and reveal fascinating discoveries about what really happened on the men’s final climb.

Beautifully written, The Everest Mystery is a powerful story of adventure and courage – and an intriguing detective story.

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

Audible Audio

Published June 16, 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

[chamelodius · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Biggus · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Susan Keller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suppositions about the deaths of Mallory and Irvine while climbing Everest in 1924. Mallory's remains have been found, but Irvine s still have not, leading to much conjecture as to what happened, what route they were on and if they even submitted