2007 Altitude Everest expedition

The Altitude Everest Expedition, led by the American climber Conrad Anker, arrived at Base Camp on the North Face of Everest in May 2007 and is retracing the last journey of British climber George Mallory. On 8th June 1924, Mallory along with his climbing partner Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine, set out for the summit of Everest but disappeared from view just a few hundred feet short of the summit. The mystery of whether they could have been the first climbers to ever reach the world's highest point has never been resolved. Anker and his colleagues will investigate what happened to them, testing out the durability of their clothing and equipment to establish if Mallory and Irvine could have reached the summit in the conditions they faced in 1924.

Conrad Anker is a world class explorer and mountaineer. In 1999 he discovered George Mallory’s body lying on the mountain in, 75 years after he had disappeared into the clouds near the summit. Anker, named as the world’s Number One adventurer in ‘Outside’ magazine, has climbed the world’s most technically challenging terrain, including the mountains of the Karakoram Himalayas, the Khumbu Himalayas, Baffin Island, Alaska, Antarctica, and Patagonia. Several times he was the first climber to reach the summit of treacherous peaks that defied dozens of attempts. Ever since he discovered Mallory’s body, Conrad has been obsessed by the mystery of his disappearance.

Accompanying Anker to retrace Mallory’s steps is British climber Leo Houlding. Houlding is one of the biggest stars in British climbing, specialising in speed climbing and base jumping. As well as appearing on the BBC’s Top Gear programme when he raced Jeremy Clarkson up the face of the Verdon Gorge (while Clarkson drove up), Houlding has free climbed the El Nino route in Yosemite and recently completed the first free ascent of the Casserato pillar on Fitzroy in Patagonia. Anker and Houlding will be joined by Ken Sauls and Jimmy Chin (who skied down Everest in 2006), two of the world’s leading high altitude cameramen and a back-up team that includes technical and medical support. Overseeing the expedition is Russell Brice, who has been leading expeditions to the Himalayas since 1974, and is now widely regarded as one of the most professional leaders of all guided expeditions to the Himalayas.