Everest's mystery

Team 1924: Andrew Irvine and George Mallory (back row, first & second from left)

At 12:50am. June 8, 1924. The team's geologist, Noel Odell, glimpsed them for the last time -- two tiny black dots climbing one of the rocksteps of the Northeast Ridge at over 28,000 feet.
Then the veil of mist closed. The two never came back.
Their disappearance became the greatest riddle in mountaineering history: Did George Mallory and Andrew Irvine reached the summit of Mount Everest before they died? Were they the first to climb the world's highest mountain, 29 years ahead of Hillary and Tenzing?
Asked earlier why he wanted to climb Everest, Mallory had famously replied, ''Because it is there.''
Seventy five years after Mallory's expedition, five young climbers retracing the route said they found Mallory's body lying on a windswept ledge at about 27,000 feet. No one yet knows if Mallory and Irvine met their end ascending or descending.