All language subtitles for The Wildest Dream NG 2010 BluRay 720p EN

Mount Everest...

Twenty-nine thousand feet...

The highest point on Earth...

Captivating and deadly.

In the 1920s,
to conquer this mountain

was the greatest challenge remaining
in a golden age of adventure.

Everest was the edge of heaven,

where many believed
no human could survive.

But not George Mallory.

(Mallory)
"Everest is the last
great conquest for man...

The Wildest Dream."

George Mallory dreamed of being
the first man to climb Everest.

On June 8, 1924,

dressed in gabardine
and hobnailed boots,

he and his fellow climber,
Sandy Irvine,

were last seen
800 feet below the summit.

Then the clouds rolled in...

They were never seen alive again.

Many believed that almost 30 years
before Everest was officially conquered,

George Mallory was the first man
to set foot on the top of the world.

Seventy-five years after
Mallory and Irvine vanished,

mountaineer Conrad Anker
took part in an expedition

looking for their bodies
high on Everest.

(radio communication)
Conrad, come in please.

I'm down at 26,7 - over.

Anker struck off on his own.

Conrad, you're way below
the search zone.

You need to be higher - over.

(Conrad Anker) I was curious.

I stopped, turned around...

and there was a patch of white.

It wasn't snow; it was matte -

a light-absorbing color, like marble.

As I got closer,
I realized this was the body

of one of the pioneering
English climbers,

frozen onto the mountainside.

For a moment I thought...

maybe I can just keep walking
and keep it to myself.

But then,
that's what we were there for.

(radio) Group Meeting.

Mandatory group meeting - over.

Here, wait!
This is George Mallory!

Oh, my God!
Oh, my God!

You see that?
George Mallory.

Oh, my God!

George Mallory and I -

our two paths have intersected
75 years apart.

My aunt called me and said
in a rather small voice on the phone:

"Suzie, they've found
my father's body on Mount Everest."

I was amazed,

I was absolutely shocked.

It was very powerful to know

where my grandfather was
and how he died.

(Anker)
He had a compound fracture
of his right leg, above the ankle -

fatal on Everest.

His arms were outstretched
as if he had tried

to dig his fingers
into the side of the mountain.

He was last seen up on the ridge,

heading west for the summit.

But I found him far to the east.

So Mallory was on his way back,

maybe returning
from the summit itself.

His sun goggles,
vital against the glare from the snow,

were in his pocket.

So it must have been getting dark.

He and Irvine were tied together
by a thin cotton rope.

They were tired, absolutely beat,
no energy left,

minds not functioning clearly.

Mallory crossed his left leg
over the broken one

to ease the pain.

It was a matter of minutes,

a half hour at the very most,

before he died.

Did Mallory reach the summit

almost three decades
before the first official climb?

We discovered
many things on his body...

Documents and letters
perfectly preserved 75 years later.

His wristwatch,
rusted in at 10 after 5.

The goggles that were
inside of his vest.

An altimeter - the face broken
and the hands missing.

But one very significant item
was missing:

The photo of his wife Ruth,

which he'd promised
to leave on the summit.

Was the photo missing

because Mallory had
reached the summit and placed it there -

the ultimate tribute to his love of Ruth?

He was last seen
about 800 feet below the summit,

near the notoriously difficult
Second Step.

If Mallory was able
to make it to the summit in 1924,

he and Irvine would have had
to have climbed this overhanging cliff

at about 28,000 feet.

There's never been a confirmed
free climb of the Second Step.

Everyone who climbs it today

uses a metal ladder
bolted to the rock

by Chinese climbers in 1975.

I want to go back to Everest

to try and climb
the Second Step,

under the very same conditions
Mallory faced.

It was a pure cliff
when Mallory and Irvine approached it.

No one had ever been there.

It would have been
an incredible feat of climbing

if they had pulled that off.

Adventure, risk...

There are some people
that thrive on it,

that seek it out,

they want to
push their own limits.

Mallory is one of those people.

Mallory grew up in Cheshire,
Northern England.

He made his first fateful climb
in Mobberley, his home village.

Mallory's father was a vicar
here at this church.

And it was here that
the young boy escaped

and climbed to the top
of the church - age seven.

You can imagine that...

Finding climbing,
it's his true passion in life.

(Susan Robertson)
I actually think that
some people who climb

are wired a little differently
from the rest of us.

My grandfather really didn't
feel fear of heights

or precipices or anything like that.

He had a way of climbing that was
not quite like everyone else's.

His arms and legs would
just sort of eat up a mountain

and he would start
flowing over it like a wave.

Aged 19, Mallory entered
the University of Cambridge

at a time of great cultural upheaval.

When Mallory arrived
in Cambridge in 1905

he pitched into this ferment
and bubble of ideas,

excitement, intellectual,
sexual, social, secret societies.

He obviously possessed
some remarkable charisma,

sort of charmed presence
that drew the eye,

compelled the gaze.

(Mallory)
"My mind is in a state
of constant rebellion.

I believe that will always be so."

He was a dreamer...

And he was in Cambridge at a time
of great and powerful dreaming.

And eventually that dream
took its form in the shape of Everest.

This was the golden age of exploration.

Mallory watched
with the rest of the world

as explorers from America,
Norway, and Britain

raced first to the North
and then the South Pole.

In 1912, Captain Scott,
the legendary British adventurer,

died in the attempt
to be the first to the South Pole.

Mallory was among those
inspired by the tragedy.

Britain is at the waning
of the empire at this time.

It is looking for ways
to reinvigorate itself.

So attention inevitably turns
to Everest as the final possibility -

The Third Pole.

Surveyors had calculated that Everest
was the highest mountain in the world.

But no Westerner had
ever been within 40 miles.

Mallory became obsessed
by a mountain he'd never even seen.

(Mallory)
"Everest is the highest mountain
in the world.

No man has reached its summit.

"Its existence is a challenge
to man's desire to conquer the universe."

Mallory wasn't just
enthralled with Everest...

He had also fallen in love
with 21-year-old Ruth Turner.

Right from the start,
they wrote each other adoring letters.

"My darling,"

I'm longing for you.

I would kiss your lips
and look into your eyes

and you, you,
you all near me and with me,

"strong and glorious
and loving and laughing."

(Ruth)
"I cannot find words
that would be sure

to convey what I feel about you.

What I really want
is to know you

and to love you more and more.

"Dearest and most beloved,
your loving Ruth."

George and my grandmother Ruth
fell madly in love in 1914.

They were both idealists,

really seeing kindred spirits
in each other.

They were married three days
before the start of World War I.

Mallory enlisted
and came face to face

with death once more,

fighting in the Somme,

the bloodiest battle
known to man.

"There is no reckoning
with death here.

Life presents itself
very much to me as a gift."

(Anker)
Mallory had witnessed
the mass slaughter of the first World War.

His fellow soldiers,
some of them six feet away,

killed by German shelling.

He knew how fragile life was.

And knowing this,
he wanted to live it to the fullest.

He wanted the ultimate challenge.

And that, in the 20s,
was Mount Everest.

Once the war was over,

the Royal Geographical Society
in London

planned the first-ever
expedition to Everest.

They needed Mallory
for his supreme climbing skills;

He needed their backing
to realize his obsession.

When Mallory undertook
that first expedition in 1921,

he had to approach Everest
through Tibet from the north.

The Nepalese refused to allow
access to the easier south side

used when Everest was first
officially climbed in 1953.

After an eight-week journey,

Mallory finally set eyes
on the mountain

that had haunted him for so long.

"Like the wildest creation of a dream -
Everest!"

A rugged giant...

A prodigious white fang...

A colossal rock plastered with snow.

From the mountaineer's point of view,

"no more appalling sight
could be imagined."

When he first saw Everest,

he describes it
really almost as an adversary.

It's very beautiful,
but also ugly or frightful,

like an ogre.

There were no maps.

No one knew the terrain there.

And this first trip, the trip of 1921,

it was imperative
that the team find the route

that would lead them
to the summit.

For months, Mallory led the search,

but the route
to the summit eluded him.

Finally, late in August,
he found what he was looking for...

An enormous glacial valley
that snaked for miles

around the other giant peaks
towards the very foot of Everest.

"My dearest Ruth,

We have found our way
to the great mountain."

At the end of the valley was a wall
of snow and ice 1,000 feet high.

It led up to a crest
that Mallory named 'The North Col. '

And then on to the top of the world.

(Mallory)
"We have established
our way to the summit

for anyone who cares to try
the highest adventure."

But the heavy snow that comes
with the monsoon each summer

quickly made climbing impossible.

They had to head home.

But within six months,
Mallory was back again...

this time with film cameras,
to show Everest to the world.

He climbed higher
than anyone else before him.

But late in the season,

as Mallory led porters up the mountain,
disaster struck.

A great snowfall had come.

They got to a delicate place
on this massive ice slope

and triggered an avalanche.

"My dearest Ruth,"

Seven brave men killed...

and I am to blame.

It has happened forever

"and I can do nothing
to make it good."

After the avalanche,
when George returned to Europe,

he really had no wish
to go back to Everest.

He just wanted to get away

from the deprivation
and the danger,

and also the memories
of that avalanche.

He had been away
for a very long period

over two successive years.

He wanted to get back
to his wife and his family.

They had three children.

My mother was the
second daughter of George Mallory.

And at this point, I think,
he was really starting

to think about wanting
to be home more,

to be with Ruth more,

and to address himself
to raising the kids.

But a new expedition
was being planned...

And Mallory desperately
wanted to be part of it -

against Ruth's wishes.

"I love you and you love me,"

and that ought to be
happiness enough for a lifetime.

But I do want you.

We want to live together
all the time

and share thoughts
and joys and sorrows.

"And we can't apart
as we can together."

"I am having a horrible time,
on a tightrope."

It would be
an awful tug going away

instead of settling down
here with Ruth.

But it would look rather grim
to see others,

"without me,
conquering the summit."

Mallory clearly loved Ruth very dearly.

She was his sweet, domestic,
beloved partner

who represented all that was
appealing about home, family,

the flatlands of Cambridge,
at sea level.

But Everest represented
all that was exciting,

adventurous, visionary, mystical.

His personality was pulled
between those two poles.

Early in 1923,
the crisis came to a head

when Mallory sailed to America
to speak about his Everest adventures.

He was the star turn at the
Explorers Club in New York.

I can just imagine the audience
on the edge of their seats

as Mallory told them
about the biting wind,

the lack of appetite,
the fierce cold.

A New York Times journalist
asked the question,

"Why climb Everest?"

Mallory gave his legendary reply...

"Because it's there."

Three words that have probably become
more famous than Mallory himself,

suggests a sort of fatalism
bubbling away in Mallory.

The mountain remains,
it's unclimbed,

and so the quest remains.

And he is the man
who is locked into

this almost fairytale relationship
with the mountain.

He's been twice and he must
go back for the third time.

I think that the idea that someone else
would build on his progress

and get to the summit on his shoulders
was quite difficult for him to accept.

It was, after all, his route
and his mountain.

It is actually a surprisingly selfish thing
for someone like Mallory to experience.

But then mountaineers all do have this
kind of element of selfishness deep down.

Aged 38,

this was Mallory's last chance
to conquer the mountain.

Conrad Anker
will follow Mallory's footsteps,

leading his own expedition
to Everest

and the Second Step.

During his climb,
Conrad plans to test clothes and boots

modeled on those he found
on Mallory's body.

Using this replica clothing,

I'm going to have this chance
to go back and see

what it was like for Mallory
to try climbing Everest in 1924.

But like Mallory,
Conrad is torn between

his passion for Everest
and his love for his family.

My family's
anxious about this trip.

I'm going to Everest...

It's a deadly mountain.

What's it worth?

Is it worth
leaving your kids behind?

Why are you going
to this mountain?

Are you going to be safe?

You know I love you.

And I can see there,

as I was trying to rationalize it
to my wife and children

that it's a safe thing
and it's a fine thing to go on Everest

and it's a noble thing,

that these were the same answers
Mallory had for Ruth.

I know what it's like to be
the wife of a climber.

And I know what it's like to be

the wife of a climber
who doesn't come home.

Jennifer was previously married

to one of America's
finest mountaineers, Alex Lowe,

Conrad's climbing partner
and closest friend.

Just a few months
after finding Mallory's body,

Conrad was climbing with Alex
when the mountains claimed another life.

An avalanche struck Alex and I

as we were climbing
in the Himalayas.

He died and I was
three feet away from him.

(Jennifer)
You could look at him
and tell that he was burdened

with this world of guilt and grief,

that somehow he could have
prevented Alex's death.

In the aftermath of this tragedy,

we communicated with each other

and eventually
we grew to fall in love.

It wasn't just Jennifer
that my love grew for,

it was also the boys.

Jennifer must really like climbers
to willingly bring me into her life

and then marry
and have me adopt the boys,

because she knows
it's downright dangerous work.

Boys, look what I found downstairs.

- Wow!
- Good God!

Is this my Halloween costume

or is this what
I'm going up Everest in?

- You guys are laughing.
- You look like Inspector Gadget.

You're supposed to take me serious.

Mom can appreciate it.

It's amazing to think of those guys

going for the summit
in clothing like that.

Would you climb Everest in that suit?

- No.
- What would you wear?

I wouldn't climb Everest.

Before climbing Everest,

Mallory had to choose
his climbing partner.

Among the candidates was
a 21-year-old chemistry student,

Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine -
a mountaineering novice.

My great uncle Sandy Irvine
took life by the horns,

and if there was an opportunity
that presented itself to him

he would take it.

He loved the theater,
he loved cars,

and above all he loved women.

And he had this
very indiscreet love affair

with his
best friend's step-mother.

It was a terrible scandal.

But Sandy Irvine was first
and foremost an oarsman.

And when he got to Oxford
he was selected to take part

in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

The annual boat race was the most
prestigious sporting event of the day.

(Summers) They were victorious.

And what Mallory saw in Sandy

was this extraordinary ability
that great oarsmen have,

which is to row through pain,

to push himself almost beyond
normal human limit.

But there was another reason
for choosing Irvine.

Mallory needed someone technical

to master the oxygen equipment
vital at high altitude.

And unlike Mallory,
Irvine was very practical.

Sandy asked the
Mount Everest committee

to send him a 1922 set,
plus the drawings.

And he spent hours and hours
in his rooms in Oxford

trying to make it serviceable,

trying to make it lighter,
stronger and less fragile,

so that the climbers could
use it with greater confidence.

And so the fact that Sandy was
so practical with the apparatus,

I think, made it quite clear
in Mallory's mind

that he was a useful man
to have climbing with him.

Conrad Anker has also chosen

a young Englishman
as his climbing partner - Leo Houlding.

Like Irvine, Leo is young,
strong, a natural athlete

and has never climbed
at high altitude.

The 90-feet high Second Step

will be a dangerous venture
into the unknown.

I'm definitely concerned
about the altitude

and the acclimatization process,

just because I've never
been high enough before

to know whether, you know,

I might be one of those people
that it doesn't gel with.

I don't want to let Conrad down

and I'm sure Irvine
felt some of that pressure.

Leo's never been to altitude,
this unknown.

And you can't walk into
a hospital and take a test

that will come back and say,
oh, you'll do well at altitude.

Some people do really well.

But I've seen fit people

doubled over
and with splitting headaches.

Being invited to climb the highest
mountain in the world with Conrad,

one of the best climbers
in his generation,

is such a privilege.

For Irvine, being invited
to climb with George Mallory,

the best climber of his generation,
on the unclimbed Mount Everest -

I just can't imagine
how he must have felt.

"I am walking on metaphorical air."

We shall go all out for the summit.

If I have to die,
then there would be no finer death

"than in an attempt to conquer Everest."

On February 29, 1924,
Mallory set sail from Liverpool,

after making Ruth
a solemn promise.

As my grandfather
was leaving England

and leaving my grandmother,

he told her that he would leave
a photograph of her

at the top of Mount Everest.

And I think he was pretty confident
that he would get there

and that he would
leave that photograph.

With the eyes of the world upon them,

Mallory and Irvine set out
on the three-week voyage for India.

Late that March, their convoy
began its 350-mile trek.

Five thousand miles apart,

Mallory and Ruth
wrote to each other frequently.

Couriers carried their letters
across the world,

and after the months of tension
they had gone through,

he and Ruth made up.

"I do miss you a lot."

I know I have rather often
been cross and not nice,

and I am very sorry.

I was unhappy
at getting so little of you.

Very, very much love
to you, my dear one,

"Your loving Ruth."

"Dearest one,"

We went through a difficult
time together in the autumn.

Your letters bring you much nearer.

"I wish I had you with me."

We can think of the relationship
between Mallory, Everest and Ruth

as a kind of love triangle.

When he was at home with Ruth
he was dreaming of Everest.

When he was away with
Everest he was dreaming of Ruth -

until a certain point, until he got
sufficiently close to the mountain

that it cast its spell over him.

The convoy of 300 pack animals
and 70 porters

journeyed through Tibet.

Provisions included four cases
of Montebello Champagne

and 60 tins of quail and foie gras.

On April 25th, 17,000 feet up,

they reached the last pass
before Everest -

Pang La.

The Pang-La is the pass

where you get the first
stunning view of Everest, right?

Yeah, and it's this vista.

You've got five of the world's
highest peaks in one view.

That's Everest.

Wow.

It's so much bigger
than all the other ones, isn't it?

Yeah.

It's really special that we haven't
had any sign of the mountain,

and then you drive up
to this high pass

and then she just
reveals herself in all her glory...

you know, Chomolungma,
Mother Goddess of the Earth,

the mountain we call Everest.

Just... bang!

This wonderful photograph,
taken on the 26th of April, 1924,

is pretty amazing.

See Everest there,
there's Mallory, Irvine,

a couple of their Sherpas
they had with them and their pony.

This is almost exactly
the same spot, right?

Pretty close.

And they spent three weeks
trekking on the plateau

to get to this point,
to be able to see it.

And they were on their feet,
they'd walked every day.

I mean, you think for us
to get here we've been in a Jeep.

On April 29th, Mallory and Irvine

set up their center of operations -
Base Camp -

12 miles from the summit.

Like Mallory, Conrad will
rely heavily on Sherpa porters,

accustomed to high altitude.

But this is a still
a dangerous mountain.

Over 200 people have died here -
among them, many Sherpas.

Well, most important is safety.

Ten fingers, ten toes,
one nose, all come back...

- Two eyes!
- Yes, two eyes!

And if you see something with us,
if we look sick,

then you tell us and say,
"Go down!"

Before one embarks
on an expedition,

it's customary to have a puja,
which is a blessing ceremony.

As Chomolungma is
Mother Goddess of the Earth,

the mountain is a deity
for the Tibetans and the Sherpas.

Safe passage depends
upon having a good puja.

Ho!

Good luck, everybody!

Lots of luck.

The Monks from the
ancient monastery nearby

gave Mallory a very mixed welcome

when he approached their
sacred mountain, Chomolungma.

It was 83 years ago
on this day, May 15th,

that Mallory
and his team came here

for a blessing from the lama.

The head lama welcomed
the strange white climbers,

but it was an ominous encounter.

Along with the blessing,

the lama had a very stern warning
for the expedition.

He spoke of disaster to come,

prophesying that
the mountain's demons

would delight in forcing
the climbers off Everest.

The monks had even
created an illustration,

a very gruesome one,

of the Gods disemboweling
a western man

and pitching him into hell.

It must have been
a terrifying moment for Mallory.

He was not a superstitious man,
but I think it would have been

hard to be in that landscape
at that time on the third expedition

And not feel the atmosphere
to be saturated

with signs and portent
and hints and forebodings.

Despite the bad omens,

Mallory hoped that this time
he'd summit the mountain.

The weather was good.

He planned to reach
the top of Everest by mid-May,

to beat the snows
that came with the monsoon.

On May 2, 1924, the giant convoy
of climbers and porters

made its way out of Base Camp.

"My dearest Ruth,

The thought of you will be present
in the most important decisions...

I am eager for
the great events to begin."

(Anker)
Mallory realized that
the way to attack Everest

was a series of camps,
almost militaristic in style.

You go some way up,
then come back down,

recuperate,
and then move back up.

It's how you acclimatize.

He pioneered this technique,

and it's the one
we still use on Everest today.

Conrad and Leo
follow Mallory's route

through a forest
of ice pinnacles, up to Camp 3.

You definitely can't cheat or hide
from altitude and acclimatization.

It just makes everything
really hard work.

- This is it, Leo.
- Finally.

Camp 3 for 1924.

At Camp 3, altitude really begins
to show its nasty side effects.

With each breath you're getting
fewer molecules of oxygen in.

It's insidious.

You lose your appetite,

you have splitting headaches,

you have a difficult time
just doing the simplest of tasks.

And yet 9,000 feet above you,
the summit of Everest,

and it's calling you.

Somewhere above their Camp 2,

Mallory and Irvine experienced
their first bout of bad weather.

A storm came in,
the temperatures plummeted,

and Mallory realized
it wasn't going to be

easy street up to
the summit of Everest.

"My dearest girl,

I was acting as a lone horse
and arrived first in Camp 3.

The glacier is everywhere
beneath the stones...

My boots were frozen
hard on my feet.

I was a good deal depressed
by the situation...

I love you always, dear one."

Shall we try it on?

Yeah, I'm pretty keen
to see how this stuff works.

Check this out.

Can you imagine
climbing up with these things?

They're something else.

So I've got every layer on here.

Mallory and Irvine
had seven layers on

when they went for
the summit in '24.

But the big difference
is here, in the footwear.

I tell you, the rest of this outfit
seems pretty good.

But compared to the boots
that we wear these days,

these things look decidedly,
you know, inappropriate.

Wearing hobnailed boot
and gabardine jackets,

Conrad and Leo
venture onto the mountain.

We were right near the spot

where seven of Mallory's porters
lost their lives in the avalanche.

But as in 1924,

we were just bound together
by a thin cotton rope.

Using Mallory's technique,

Conrad cuts steps
into the steep ice slope.

This is real mountain terrain.

I mean, if you lose your footing

you'll fall down 1,000 feet
to the base of it.

And we need to
start being careful now,

there's crevasses,
there's danger of avalanche.

When you stand
on the edge of a crevasse,

you just see this slot
disappearing down into the glacier,

hundreds of feet deep.

But the dangerous ones
are the ones that you can't see.

You can be walking across
a snow bridge just a few feet thick

and fall through it to certain death.

- Yikes, she's deep, isn't she?
- Yeah.

I'm right at the bridge!

Ten feet of rope!

Be careful, my friend.

It's phenomenal that they
were able to get to 28,000 feet

in what I would basically call

clothing you'd walk through the forest.

Good job, Leo.

No... Good job Conrad.

Ohhh...

I'm knackered!

In 1924, Mallory's team were
pinned down by weather so severe

Sandy Irvine feared for his life.

"May 10th...

Had a terrible night
with wind and snow.

I don't know how
the tent stood it.

Very little sleep,

and about two inches of snow
over everything in the tent.

Awful headache this morning."

Irvine was suffering
from altitude sickness.

His role as Mallory's
climbing partner was now in doubt.

The harsh conditions forced the
entire team back down to Base Camp.

When they arrived there

they found that two
of the staff were dead.

Instead of preparing
for a summit bid

they were burying people
in Base Camp.

It must have been quite strange
for Irvine to come to terms with that.

"One of our NCOs
suddenly got paralysis,

probably due to a clot on the brain
from frostbitten fingers.

The poor fellow died
within half a mile of Base Camp."

Meanwhile, Mallory planned
another dangerous summit bid.

But he allowed no sign
of the team's suffering to show

in a letter to his eldest daughter, Clare.

"My darling,

There is not much wind today,
so it is nice and warm.

Now tea has come
and for the first time

since I don't know when, cake.

Shall we have a little tea party together
one day in August,

with a flat, warm squidgy cake
and nothing else?

Haven't you got a greedy Daddy!

It was already mid-May.

And soon, the snows would come.

The monsoon arrives
early June every year.

It releases a tremendous
amount of snow.

Climbing is impossible.

We had the same challenge
as Mallory in 1924.

We were there late in the season.

If we didn't get up the mountain
before the monsoon hit

we'd be in very serious trouble.

Over 22,000 feet up,

Conrad and Leo start
the ascent of Everest itself.

They are on one of the most
treacherous parts of the mountain -

the giant wall of ice and snow
that leads up to the North Col,

the launchpad to the summit.

Despite all the modern equipment,
the altitude hits Leo hard.

This is the first time
I've ever been to this altitude,

and you move so desperately slowly,
it's unreal, you just can't believe.

You take two steps
and you're completely out of breath,

and I'm sure it's going to
get worse as we get up.

With hobnailed boots
and no guide-ropes,

Mallory led the assault
on the North Col,

cutting steps into what he called
'its great battlements of ice. '

"The North Col was a triumph.

I enjoyed the conquest of
the ice wall and making the steps.

Afterwards I was
practically bust to the world."

Looking back down the valley,

he was already higher than
the greatest peaks in Europe or America.

But the summit was still
6,000 feet above.

Here on the Col, Mallory set
up his bridgehead to Everest -

Camp 4.

He planned higher camps
further up the mountain.

These would take him within
striking distance of the summit.

Mallory had a cough
that wouldn't go away,

Irvine was suffering from diarrhea,

and the cold never left them.

"My dearest Ruth,

I couldn't sleep,

distressed with bursts of coughing
fit to tear one's guts.

Fierce squalls visited our tents
and shook them

with the disagreeable threat of tearing
them away from their moorings.

There was never a more
determined and bitter enemy."

Twenty-three thousand feet up,

Conrad and Leo test out
Mallory's gear one last time.

Suddenly, temperatures plummet
to 20 below freezing.

They're in severe danger of frostbite.

Thank you, Mingma.

No problem.

I can't imagine going to
8,500 meters in these boots.

Which is my theory,

that if those guys
were moving they were okay...

but once they stopped moving
the clock was ticking,

and it was a different game altogether.

My toes are freezing.

In '22, Mallory frostbit one of his fingers...

And he commented that it
was bad but not that bad.

And then as a note aside he said,

"I wouldn't mind if
I lost a finger for this summit."

And if I was in his shoes
I probably would have thought

the same thing because it
was the golden age of exploration.

Ahh, that's it.

Come on, my beauties.

Oh, God.

Bad weather blocks Conrad's path

and the monsoon snows
are imminent.

He and Leo risk being trapped
high on Everest, beyond rescue.

It was a stressful moment.

What are we doing?

We're climbing
into the second week of June,

the monsoon's on our ass.

I get on the phone to Jennifer,
and I say to her,

it's not worth what I'm putting you
and the family through,

and I'm ready to come home.

The window was closing;
I knew the monsoon was coming.

I was looking at the satellite
imagery of the weather.

I said, Conrad, you know what?

I'm looking at the computer screen

and I'm seeing this
giant wall of weather -

and it's the monsoon.

And I just said, Conrad,

you need to be confident
that you can make it.

But if you have a chance
to climb the Second Step,

I want you to go for it.

"My dear one,

What is happening to you?

I wonder so much.

Are you happy
and are you well?

All the immortal love
my soul has is with you...

Ruth."

Early in June, 1924,

two of Mallory's team,
Norton and Somervell,

pushed on up the mountain,
but Everest forced them back.

Snow-blind, Norton had
to be carried down.

Somervell almost choked to death

before coughing up
part of his frostbitten larynx.

Clearly, it was time to go home.

They were weak with exhaustion...

The monsoon was due...

But Mallory refused to give in.

"My dear girl,

This has been
a bad time altogether...

Perhaps it's mere folly
to go up again.

But how can I be out of the hunt?

Six days to the top
from this camp.

It's 50 to 1 against,
but we'll have a whack yet

and do ourselves proud.

Great love to you,

ever your loving George."

The big question
is why George Mallory

thought it was worth
one more shot.

I think the way to reconcile
the overriding conflict in his life,

was actually to climb the mountain
and be done with it

and go home to Ruth
and say I've done it,

it's over, now we can get on
with the rest of our lives.

He knew that this was it.

He couldn't
come back again later

if he didn't get to the top.

It would be impossible
to put Ruth through that again.

"I must tell you, dearest one,

I feel full of energy and strength.

My plan will be to carry
as little as possible,

go fast, and rush the summit."

Mallory now needed oxygen
and Irvine more than ever.

He wanted his partner,

now over the worst
of his altitude sickness,

to apply his technical skills
to the final assault.

"Irvine has been brilliantly
skillful about the oxygen.

He has practically
invented a new instrument."

"Fifth of June...

It will be a great triumph
if my impromptu apparatus

gets us to the top.

It has been
very trying for everyone

with terribly strong
reflection off the snow.

I've prepared
two oxygen apparatus

for our start tomorrow morning."

These are the last words
written by Sandy Irvine.

He would have gone

wherever Mallory would have
wanted him to go,

and I'm quite sure
that he had every intention

of coming back from the mountain

with both feet, both legs,
both arms intact.

I don't think
he even entertained, truly entertained,

the idea that he would die.

I think he believed that
he was indestructible.

Early on June the 6th,

support climber Noel Odell
photographed Mallory and Irvine

as they set out from the North Col.

(Odell)
"Who could hold back
when such a victory,

such a triumph of human endeavor
was within their grasp."

(Mallory)
"One must conquer, achieve,
get to the top...

to know there's no dream
that mustn't be dared."

There's nothing on top
of Mount Everest.

There's not a pot of gold.

Well, why are we doing this?

You want the glory.

You want that feeling
of standing on top of the world.

Gambling on beating the monsoon,
Conrad makes his choice -

to follow Mallory
up to the Second Step.

We're starting our summit bid
and it's the 10th of June.

I think the 5th of June

is the latest anyone's
ever climbed pre-monsoon.

The clouds in the background
are an indication

of the monsoon rolling in,

so we're gonna play it by ear,
one day at a time,

but this is our window.

It's just ridiculously tiring,

like it feels like
someone's taking the Michael...

You take one step
and your head's in your hands.

That is unreal, isn't it?

It's like an out-of-body experience.

On June the 7th,
cameraman John Noel

filmed the last images
of Mallory and Irvine.

They were two miles above him
with their porters,

climbing into the death zone,

where the lack of oxygen

makes it impossible
to function for long.

In the death zone,
above 26,000 feet,

the body enters into
what is known as necrosis...

One is dying.

Humans weren't meant
to survive at this altitude,

and you're on borrowed time.

As they enter the death zone,
Conrad and Leo use oxygen,

like Mallory and Irvine before them.

I was just thinking,

oh, the death zone -
this place isn't that bad.

All of a sudden
the first of the dead bodies

that we encountered
appeared right by the path.

And it was a real...

Where else do you
walk past a dead body?

Unless you're in a war zone

you're never going to
witness anything like that.

It's such an extreme environment
up there

that no one can
do anything about it,

they can't bring them down.

High in the death zone,
some 2,000 feet below the summit,

Mallory and Irvine
pitched their last camp.

Here Mallory wrote
to cameraman John Noel,

who was waiting further down
to film the moment of triumph.

"Dear Noel,

We'll probably start early tomorrow
to have clear weather.

Start looking out for us

either crossing the rock band
under the pyramid

or going up the skyline at 8 p.m."

(Anker)
Clearly he meant to say 8 a.m.

He was tired.

He had been
on expedition for three months

and now over three days
in the death zone.

We knew the monsoon
was imminent.

We only had a 12-hour window...

We had to strike
while the iron was hot.

You're so nervous
that I woke up

before the alarm
and turned our headlamps on,

got all the
layering systems set up.

When you step out of the tent
it was a bit like a starting gate.

I was ready to go.

Leo was so excited,

he had that boost
of summit energy.

It's probably similar
to what Mallory and Irvine had

on their summit day

when they were there
within striking distance

of the first ascent of Everest.

Imagine the morning
of June 8, 1924...

They're cold,
they've had a restless night of sleep.

Compound this with
a lack of appetite,

severe dehydration.

Their bodies are wasted.

Their mental faculties
are compromised.

Simple things
become monumental chores.

Twenty-eight thousand feet
is at the limit

of what is humanly possible.

Even with supplemental oxygen,
it's very, very desperate.

And above them is a route
that no one has ever been on.

And when you're the first,

overcoming this sense
of the unknown

is one of
the greatest challenges.

Think about it:

The anxiety, the fear, trepidation,

combined with the exhilaration.

All those things stirring around

and held fast
by pain and suffering.

Mallory and Irvine
climbed the North Face,

up towards the summit ridge,

where the Second Step
blocked their path.

We got to the ridge
just on schedule, right after dawn.

Absolutely wonderful.

At 12:50 on June 8, 1924,

support climber Noel Odell
sighted Mallory and Irvine

through a gap in the clouds.

"My eyes became fixed
on a tiny black dot,

a short distance from the base
of the final pyramid.

Another moved up to join it.

They were moving expeditiously,
as if to make up for lost time.

Then the whole
fascinating vision vanished,

enveloped in a cloud."

Mallory and Irvine were missing.

(Odell)
"No trace can be found...

Awaiting orders."

Instead of capturing
their victorious ascent,

cameraman John Noel
had to film the search for them.

Days later, blankets laid out
as a cross in the snow

signaled the devastating news.

Mallory and Irvine were lost,
presumed dead.

Mrs Mallory,
Herschel House, Cambridge...

Committee deeply regret
receive bad news.

Everest expedition today...

Your husband killed...

Last climb.

Committee offer you and family
heartfelt sympathy.

Ruth received
the news one evening.

She decided not
to tell her children that night

because they'd already gone to bed.

She actually went to bed herself

and slept with
that terrible knowledge,

then in morning woke them up
and took them into her bed,

and told them this terrible news.

(Ruth)
"George's spirit
was ready for another life,

and his way of going to it
was very beautiful.

I know so absolutely
he could not have failed

in courage or self-sacrifice.

If only it hadn't happened.

It so easily might not have."

The golden age of exploration
had ended in tragedy.

The fallen hero was
mourned by King and country.

It must have been
an extraordinary day,

the bells ringing out
around Britain in mourning...

And then
a memorial service in St Paul's,

the mourners packing the pews

and speeches given
in Mallory's honor.

Mallory, the man,
soon became Mallory, the legend.

Many people were convinced
he had reached the top of Everest.

But to summit, he would first have had
to free-climb the Second Step.

On June 14th our expedition
reached the Second Step -

this formidable rock face that
stood between Mallory and the summit.

The Sherpas cleared the fixed-ropes
and hauled the ladder away,

restoring the Second Step
to what it was like in 1924.

Goal is today, pull the ladders up
and climb it free -

that is without the assistance
of the Chinese ladder.

This whole time on the expedition

I knew it was going to
come down to this half hour,

on a cliff band at 28,300 feet.

Could I do it in the form
that Mallory and Irvine

would have encountered it,
free of any ladder,

free of any rope,
free of any indication of man?

You have the whole
North Face of Mount Everest

all the way down to the
central Rongbuk glacier below you.

Seven, eight-thousand feet of exposure.

God, what am I doing?

Just like Mallory and Irvine,

Leo and I were tied together.

It's the brotherhood of the rope.

Imagine this...

June 8, 1924.

Whoa!

You okay?

Yeah...

Man!

What happened?

Bad step.

Had I not caught myself,

there's a good chance
I could have fallen over the edge,

pulled Leo off of the mountain

and fallen 7,000 feet
to the central Rongbuk glacier.

I think it shook him up somewhat

and he ended up
spending quite a long time

figuring out what to do next,
recomposing himself.

I mean, I'd say at least 20 minutes.

Want to stand on my shoulders?

I'm going to give it another go.

My job was to...
climb the Second Step.

I knew that I had to
try it from a different angle.

Okay...

High step...

I think I got it, Leo.

I think I got it...

Aaaahhh!

After eight years
of keeping me awake at night

and being the 90 feet of climbing
that I had to get done...

I got the Second Step.

I can't breathe.

I realized that my toes
had gone completely numb.

My biggest fear
through this whole experience

has been getting frostbite
in my toes.

I was just concerned about
getting to the top of the Second Step

as quickly as I possibly could.

(Anker)
I thought about Mallory.

Our ascent of the Second Step

opens up the possibility
that they could have pulled it off.

Earlier I was under the impression
that the Second Step

was an impossibility
for climbers of that time.

Now I'm changed on that.

They definitely were
capable of doing it.

The Second Step is not too much
of an obstacle for them to overcome.

They were determined,

and if they were strong
and they were moving quickly,

there's a chance
they made it to the top.

"Dear one,

I will be thinking of you
as you set off for the summit.

I know you can achieve
your wildest dream."

(Irvine)
"If we get within
200 yards or so

of the top of Everest,

we shall go...

And if it's a one-way ticket,
so be it."

Eight years after I found
the body of George Mallory,

the circle is complete.

A few hours before
the monsoon closed in,

Leo and I summitted Mount Everest.

And we have shown
that these could have been

Mallory and Irvine's final footsteps.

"Is this the summit crowning the day?

How cool and how quiet...

Have we vanquished an enemy?

None but ourselves?"