First On Everest the Mystery of Mallory and Irvine [Paperback]

Tom Holzel (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 322 pages
• Publisher: Paragon House (May 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557781052
• ISBN-13: 978-1557781055
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,954,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tom Holzel was born in Berlin and lived in Germany during WW-II. Escaping from the Russian Zone in 1946, he emigrated to the U.S. with his mother and younger brother. He has retained a fascination with the war and its unmatched outburst of technology by all sides. In 1956 he returned and found what he believed to be an entrance to the flooded Hitler bunker. With a scuba system built out of an aircraft oxygen system, he planned to dive to recover the shell casing of the bullet with which Hitler took his life.

In 1971 he chanced across a brief description of the disappearance in 1924 of Mallory & Irvine near the summit of Mt Everest. When he went to the library to discover what happened to the pair, he was disappointed to find no answers, but was astonished at the substantial amount of information about the expedition. He began to research the subject (see velocitypress.com) in order to find the two climbers and bring back their Kodak cameras. Maybe they would show a summit photograph!

He mounted a search expedition to the North Side of Everest in 1986 but the team was snowed out. George Mallory was discovered in 1999 within 35m of where he had predicted, but no camera was found. Now he believes he has spotted Andrew Irvine by means of aerial photographs.

Holzel lives in Boston with his wife Dianne and their Shelty dog Nick.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost proves Mallory reached summit of Everest in 1924., April 25, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: First On Everest the Mystery of Mallory and Irvine (Paperback)

The book is of two parts--an interesting biography of Geo. Mallory (including some nude photos!), Bloomsbury darling and Everest pioneer--and a detailed examination of his 3rd attempt on Everest. The authors come very close to proving that, because he was using oxygen, Mallory must have made it to the top, given where he was last sighted, and his carefully established climb rates. Holzel startled the climbing world by predicting the location of Mallory's body--for which he was blasted by the British climbing stablishmen --only to have the prediction come true ten years later! A great feat of historical detective work, if sometimes a bit complicated (oxygen flow rates, etc.) He and Salkeld went to Everest looking for Mallory's camera which Kodak says could still hold developable film (frozen all this time). So final proof awaits the next generation