1924 British Mount Everest expedition

A desire to restore national prestige led to scrutiny and discussion of the possibility of "conquering the third pole" – making the first ascent of the highest mountain on Earth.

Going to the north side was politically complex: it required the persistent intervention of the British-Indian government with the Dalai Lama regime in Tibet to allow British expedition activities.

A major handicap of all expeditions to the north side of Mount Everest is the tight time window between the end of winter and the start of the monsoon rains.

To travel from Darjeeling in northern India over Sikkim to Tibet, it was necessary to climb high, long snow-laden passes east of the Kangchenjunga area.

The expeditions arrived at Mount Everest in late April and only had until June before the monsoon began, allowing only six to eight weeks for altitude acclimatisation, setting up camps, and the actual climbing attempts.

After they had discovered access to the base of the north col via the East Rongbuk Glacier, the complete route was explored and appeared to be the superior option.

The changed climbing strategy increased their involvement, later culminating in an equal partnership of Tenzing Norgay for the first known ascent in 1953 together with Edmund Hillary.

Mallory refused to climb again without Finch, but changed his mind after being personally persuaded by the British royal family at Hinks's request.

Andrew "Sandy" Irvine, an engineering student whom Odell knew from an expedition to Spitsbergen in 1923, was a so-called "experiment" for the team and a test for "young blood" on the slopes of Mount Everest.

1893 (Bootham School, York, 1906–10) was also chosen, but resigned on being told that some members of the party objected to climbing with a man who had refused to fight in the war.

They once again engaged the Tibetan born Karma Paul for translation purposes and Gyalzen for sardar (leader of the porters) and purchased food and material.

As the kingdom of Nepal was forbidden to foreigners, the British expeditions before the Second World War could only gain access to the north side of the mountain.

On the Northeast Ridge a formidable obstacle blocks the route in the form of steep cliff called the Second Step at 8,605 metres (28,230 ft), whose difficulty was unknown in 1924.

The diagonal traverse of the northern face to breach the Second Step strata through the beginning of the Great (Norton) Couloir was a potential alternative to the ridge route, but it is rarely used.

The following day, three tigers also objected to climbing higher, and the attempt was aborted without erecting Camp VI as planned at 8,170 metres (26,800 ft).

The porters were then sent back to Camp IV on the North Col. On 4 June, Norton and Somervell were able to start their summit bid at 6:40 am, later than originally planned.

It shows Norton near his high point of 8,572.8 metres (28,126 ft) where he tried to climb over steep, icy terrain with some spots of fresh snow.

[12] The film The Epic of Everest captures a scene from that day of a party of ten people moving up the ridge, but at over two miles distance, only tiny figures can be seen.

But when the expedition leader, Norton, wrote his official history the following year it had been changed, and now referred to the two climbers reaching the base of the Second Step instead.

The official film of the expedition The Epic of Everest, produced by John Noel, caused a diplomatic controversy later known as the Affair of the Dancing Lamas.

For reasons already given, neither climber would be likely to abandon it deliberately on the slabs...its presence there would seem to indicate that it was accidentally dropped when a slip occurred or that its owner put it down in order to have both hands free to hold the rope".

[26] Noted in his letter was the discovery of the ice axe in 1933 found below the crest of the Northeast Ridge, where Smythe felt certain it marked the scene of an accident to Mallory and Irvine.

This news was officially denied by the Chinese Mountaineering Association (CMA), but this report to a Japanese climber, who passed it on to Tom Holzel led to the first Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition in 1986, which was unsuccessful due to bad weather.

During their meeting, the deputy leader of the expedition, Xu Jing, said that on his descent from the First Step, he spotted a dead climber lying on his back, feet facing uphill, in a hollow or slot in the rock.

Mallory's injuries were such that a walking descent was impossible: his right foot was nearly broken off and there was a golf ball-sized puncture wound in his forehead.

Chin mentioned to Erich Roepke that if Andrew Comyn Irvine, or Sandy, as he was known, had fallen down the north face, his remains or his body could be nearby.

The team speculated that if an oxygen canister had fallen off the mountain, “it probably fell down quite a bit farther than a body—more like a missile.”  Chin suspected that Irvine's remains could potentially be a few hundred yards up the glacier.

[39] The Performance Clothing Research Centre at the University of Leeds tested the reproduced outfit thoroughly and "concluded that Mallory was sufficiently well insulated to operate effectively on Everest, provided he was moving and not forced to bivouac".

[40] Human thermo-regulation expert George Havenith of Loughborough University (UK), has tested a rigorously accurate recreation of Mallory's clothing in a weather chamber.

In June 2007, Anker returned as a member of the Altitude Everest Expedition 2007, and with Leo Houlding successfully free-climbed the Second Step, after removing the "Chinese ladder" (which was later replaced).