In 1924 he was an oxygen officer on the Everest expedition in which George Mallory and Andrew Irvine famously perished during their summit attempt.

He was born at St Lawrence, Isle of Wight[1] the son of Rev Robert William Odell and his wife, Mary Margaret Ewart.

He was an accomplished rock climber, joining the Alpine Club in 1916[3] and famous for his solo first ascent in 1919 of Tennis Shoe on the Idwal Slabs (Rhiwiau Caws) in Snowdonia.

[5] On 8 June 1924 George Mallory and Andrew Irvine attempted to climb to the top of Mount Everest via the Northeast Ridge route.

[citation needed] In 1936 Noel Odell with Bill Tilman successfully reached the summit of Nanda Devi which at the time, and until 1950, was the highest mountain climbed.