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Because it's there
“Because it’s there”
Why would anyone want to climb Mount Everest? This is the question that George Leigh Mallory had to answer on repeat throughout the year 1923. After two failed attempts at the summit, Mallory was on a fundraising campaign to finance his 1924 expedition[1].
The question of why was repeated so often that Mallory adopted today’s quote as the standard reply. Simple and effective, Mallory was able to cobble together adequate funding and made another attempt in 1924 that proved to be his last.
He was last seen a thousand feet from the summit before being lost to the mountain he so desperately wanted to conquer[2]. A feat that wouldn’t happen for almost 30 more years.
Andrew Irvine left and George Mallory right