Mallory and Irvine The Final Chapter: WU

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Update 7/1/2004: WU, when is it time to publish?

As we stated earlier...

On May 27th 2004, our climbers found a body above 8000 meters on the North Face of Everest. It would be hard to imagine finding a body in worse shape. They described the body as "headless", with severely broken bones. The chest area of the body was heavily damaged. The body was not covered with stones when they found it (i.e., it had not been buried by earlier climbers). The body with broad shoulders was found with shoulders pointing downhill. Only one "leather boot" was found; its size was estimated around 9-10.  Nothing was on the wrists (no wristwatch, bracelet, etc.). The climber wore handmade socks and had no gloves on. The hands were black and bone. No harness of any kind was found on or near the body, nor any rope. The body was given a legal burial.

The climbers initially thought the body was Chinese based on two letters written in blue ink inside the boot. However, the handwritten letters inside the boot are written in English and no other signs point to a Chinese climber so far. Our people who were on the mountain believe the body is not Sandy Irvine. Unfortunately, the findings need to be studied to determine who this climber is. The identity of this body is going to be very hard to determine because of the condition of the body.

History, of course, tells us that only 2 climbers (besides George Mallory) died above 8000 meters on Everest's North Side: Sandy Irvine and Wu Tseng-Yue before 1985

Update 7/1/2004: After looking at the evidence, the letters on the lining of the leather boot are WU, as you can see in the above picture. All other markings you might see in that picture are just dirt. Studying the picture and the film of the body, you see a climber lying on his back, head facing downhill on the North Face, with one leg touching the yellow band, his body essentially demolished by his fall. His head is completely missing and his waist ripped open.  Like Mallory, the skin of his thorax is marble white and undamaged by the elements. The destruction caused by the climber's fall suggests--as some Mallory & Irvine theorists have claimed--that Mallory could not have fallen twice as far and suffered half the damage.

A tag with Chinese markings was also found on the body. We did not know of the writing on the tag when making the earlier update.

Therefore, the logical assumption is that this body with a leather boot appears to be Wu Tseng-Yue. Note, this body was not in a crevice, but lying on a slope with one leg on the yellow band. The shoe size was very small for an adult. This body was also not buried when found. Wu was reported to be found in 1999 and 2001, but based on their descriptions this appears to be a different climber.

A picture in this case would say a thousand words, but for now we are not publishing the picture. However, we will show the picture to various historians. In the next few weeks, we will try to publish more updates on other items including the oxygen bottle found at a different location. We currently still have many more questions than answers.

When time permits, we would also like to tell the story of this year's expedition from the beginning, so you can better understand.

We went to Mount Everest in search of an answer.

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