“The trenches were in a filthy state owing to a more or less futile attack made by our men the night before,” Lieutenant George Mallory recorded in another letter home, written in 1916.

From discovering Mallory to losing his best friend in an avalanche on Shishapangma, Conrad Anker’s career in the mountains is ...

On the morning of June 6, having breakfasted on a fry of tinned sardines, George Mallory and young Sandy Irvine set off from the top of the North Col at 23,100 feet, hoping to reach the summit ...