Excerpted from Ghosts of Everest by Jochen Hemmleb, Larry A. Johnson and Eric R. Simonson

Thus, we can only conclude that Odell was right the first time: he saw Mallory and Irvine at the Second Step . . . or very possibly higher . . . when he saw them at 12:50 P.M. Is there any other evidence to support this conclusion? There is. It is reasonable to expect Odell, a geologist, to be precise in describing the terrain the two climbers were traversing at the time he saw them, and indeed he was. In his original diary entry, Odell wrote that he"saw M[allory] & I[rvine] on ridge nearing base of final pyramide [sic]." Under no circumstance can the First Step be thus described. Indeed, nothing in his topographical description fits any feature of the First Step.

Was he describing the Second Step? Perhaps, but here too the problem is that the topography Odell describes is not fully consistent with the topography at the Second Step either. Odell described a "snow crest" (later changed to "snow slope") "beneath a rock-step in the ridge." Both 1999 and 1924 were very dry years; in 1999, there was no snow crest (or slope) at the base of the Second Step. There was one beneath the Third Step. Odell also said that first one, then the other climber "shortly emerged at the top" of the rock-step as he watched them (though he does not define "shortly"). The Second Step in its entirety cannot be surmounted in a period of time for which "shortly" would be an appropriate descriptor. The Third Step can. Further, when one climbs the Second Step, one does not "emerge at the top" but around to its right, indirectly. At the Third Step, one does indeed emerge at the top, etched against the skyline.

Did Odell see them at the Third Step, then? It is an exciting prospect, but one that is hard to accept. It is true that the Third Step conforms best to Odell's description, and Andy Politz, the one climber who stood where Odell had stood seventy-five years earlier, remains convinced that what Odell described can only be interpreted as the Third Step. "[T]hose three steps are definitely separated, from that perspective," he says. "I have no doubt that he saw them on the Third Step. I think it's very obvious. What he described is clearly easy to define, even when . . . you have just a few seconds of observation. And the summit pyramid is stacked right behind that [third] step these guys climbed." Jochen Hemmleb, watching Anker and Hahn climb the Third Step through his telescope, found that what he saw matched perfectly Odell's description of his view of Mallory and Irvine.

Move on to A Second Route

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