Everest's Greatest Mystery: Adrian Ballinger on the Search for Sandy Irvine

When George Mallory and Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine disappeared high upon Mount Everest on June 8, 1924 so began one of the greatest mysteries in all of mountaineering? Did they reach the summit of the world's highest peak first? They were last seen on the final ridge to the summit 'going strong for the top'. What happened to them. George Mallory was discovered in 1999 by an international team of climbers and filmmakers, answering some questions but giving rise to so many more. 

My guest today is Adrian Ballinger. 
Part I of my conversation with Adrian on Mount Everest is here:
https://youtu.be/l9MwNvLnWrw

In 2019, I was with a National Geographic crew that went to look for the body of Sandy Irvine on tips that we had received from historian Tom Holzel. There was also a team there from Discovery Channel, one of my friends Jake Norton was there. And the expedition was led by none other than Adrian Ballinger, who has summited Everest eight times one of those times without the use of bottled oxygen. If anybody can attest to the difficulty of climbing the Second Step it would be Adrian, a photograph included in the video depicts him at the Second Step on a ladder and trying to surmount the obstacles of getting to the summit of Mount Everest. 

So if anybody knows about how hard it would be for Mallory and Irvine to have made it over the Second Step, it's Adrian. So when this very short conversation I asked Adrian how the expedition managed in 2019 to look for the body where they spent many days above 8000 meters looking for clues. Coincidentally, Adrian and I spoke on the 99th anniversary of the disappearance of Mallory and Irvine. 

For more on the Mystery of Mallory and Irvine, here is a fantastic interview with climber and historian Jake Norton: 
https://youtu.be/5ZRacaWu8U4

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