Mark MacKenzie

An interesting addition to the Mallory and Irvine canon of works. The story of Mallory and Irvine's last days has been recounted so many times that it is impossible for Mark MacKenzie to add anything to this narrative. But it is the modern day story which makes this book so interesting. Back in 1999 Conrad Anker was part of the team which discovered George Mallory's body, and in 2007 Anker, alongside British climber, Leo Houlding, agrees to take part in a documentary film about Mallory's and Irvine's last days, playing Mallory on Everest. The modern climbers feelings about the relative inadequacies of the 1920s equipment is insightful, ''What it must have been like to battle the most extreme elements and then not have a warm, dry shelter to return to?' Later, having abandoned 1920s gear, Anker's team remove the fixed ladder from the Second Step, and Anker and Houlding attempt the climb in the hoping of discovering whether Mallory, the most gifted climber of his generation, could have scaled the Second Step - most probably - but the jury is still out on whether Mallory would have continued to climb for the next two or so hours onto the Summit, Anker is not convinced that Mallory 'would have chosen a death-or-glory finale.'… (meer)