On June 8, 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine left their tent high up on the slopes of Mount Everest and climbed into history. They were seen at 12:50 pm just 800 feet from the summit and "going strong for the top". Within minutes, Mallory and Irvine had disappeared in a snowstorm and were never seen alive again.

What happened to these two pioneering climbers is perhaps the most famous mystery in the history of mountaineering. For over 75 years there has been fierce debate over whether they were the first to reach the summit, doing so 29 years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. In March 1999 an expedition primarily sponsored by the BBC climbed to the North Face of Everest. The discoveries of this expedition became front page news around the world.

This gripping book by Peter Firstbrook, who is also the BBC film producer, fully explores the events leading up to Mallory and Irvine's historic attempt to reach the summit, giving a dramatic, first-hand account of the 1999 search expedition.

Firstbrook utilizes his extensive historical research and the amazing evidence found in 1999 to piece together the final hours of the two brave climbers.