100 years ago they disappeared on Everest. But did they make it to the summit?

The 1924 expedition, including Irvine and Mallory , aimed to be the first documented ascent of the mountain. It’s one of climbing’s greatest mysteries: was Everest really conquered for the first time in 1953, or did two mountaineers make it to the summit in 1924, before dying in mysterious circumstances?

His relative several times removed, Howard Somervell – another mountaineer, who had got within 1,000 feet of the summit on the same expedition before a lack of oxygen meant he had to retreat – was responsible for tracking the weather during the expedition.

The pair – who were ascending along the northwest ridge – were already climbing against the odds. Mallory wrote in a letter to his wife that he put his chances of making the summit at 50 to one. Hoyland thinks it was more like 20 to one. But, he thinks, they would have had no idea what was about to hit them.

Previously, it has been speculated that the pair had reached the summit before dying on the way down, something that Hoyland calls “wishful thinking.” In 1936, another mountaineer, Frank Smythe, believed he had seen two bodies in the distance. Using a telescope, he saw them at around 8,100 meters, or 26,575 feet.Finally, an expedition in 1999, instigated by Hoyland, found Mallory’s body at 26,700 feet –2,335 below the summit.

“Everyone he knew was a famous novelist or a Nobel prizewinner, and he got captivated by it ,” he said. Flight turbulence like that encountered by a Singapore Airlines flight on Tuesday is extremely common, but there's one aspect of severe turbulence an aviation expert says can lead to serious injury.British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton was attacked and sustained life-threatening injuries in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a 'major assault.'In his latest column for CTVNews.

Police in Ontario say a group of suspects charged in an armed home invasion north of Toronto last year were driving a vehicle stolen in a carjacking in Calgary just one month earlier.A disruption to Internet, television and phone services in several north Calgary neighbourhoods is related to vandalism, CTV News has learned.Inflation slows in Alberta, Calgary's inflation the highest in CanadaOPP continues to investigate boat collision north of Kingston, Ont.

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