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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:34 pm
by Big Benn


Very interesting.

Now, Everest historian Tom Holzel believes he has pinpointed the location of Andrew Irvine's body, showing up as an "oblong blob" on high-resolution photographs of the mountain.


Presumably from a satellite image? I thought the latest satellites and imaging devices could see enormous detail from very great heights. So I wonder why something close to 6 feet long only shows up as an oblong blob. Unless the body is partially covered in snow and ice.

Anyway. I am reading the Mallory/Irvine book I have again at present. So this will add spice to that reading.

Oh. My conclusion after reading the book the first time was that I was left 100% certain the pair did not summit. Wonder if I'll be left with the same conclusion after my second read of the book!

PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:28 pm
by Diego SahagĂșn
Bryan Benn wrote:


Very interesting.

Now, Everest historian Tom Holzel believes he has pinpointed the location of Andrew Irvine's body, showing up as an "oblong blob" on high-resolution photographs of the mountain.


Presumably from a satellite image? I thought the latest satellites and imaging devices could see enormous detail from very great heights. So I wonder why something close to 6 feet long only shows up as an oblong blob. Unless the body is partially covered in snow and ice.

Anyway. I am reading the Mallory/Irvine book I have again at present. So this will add spice to that reading.

Oh. My conclusion after reading the book the first time was that I was left 100% certain the pair did not summit. Wonder if I'll be left with the same conclusion after my second read of the book!

Yep Bryan, surely the body would be partly (or completely) covered by snow but I doubt that he's found it using satelites.

Gracias

PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:59 pm
by fatdad
I originally clung to the notion that they could have made it but then changed my mind. What changed it was when Conrad Anker went up and climbed either the first or second step without the ladder, which he rated 5.10, the crux section being offwidth. No way those guys could have climbed that back then, at that altitude with their gear.