During the ninth season of The Simpsons (1998), Homer decides to climb “The Murderhorn,” the tallest mountain in Springfield. In a cave high on the mountain, Homer discovers the frozen body of McAllister and (unceremoniously) uses it as a toboggan to slide back down.

It’s often been suggested that The Simpsons is a prescient series. One year after this episode was aired, a climbing expedition funded by the BBC located George Mallory’s body on Mt. Everest. This discovery shed new light on one of mountaineering’s greatest mysteries: did Mallory and Irvine summit Everest in 1924?

The Search for Mallory and Irvine provides an informative account of the history of Mount Everest leading up to that fateful summit attempt in 1924. Peter Firstbrook details the discovery of Mount Everest and the painstaking triangulation required to survey the Himalayan mountain range before a summit was even considered. The sheer magnitude of the landscape is overwhelming. Mount Everest is so massive that it warps the earth’s gravitational pull in measurable ways. Plumb-bobs used to setup the surveying instruments moved a fraction of a degree away from the centre of the earth toward the hulking mass.

In addition to geographic data, Firstbrook also explores George Mallory’s biography and gives a fascinating account of the interpersonal challenges of pulling off even a trip to the base of the mountain in the early twentieth century. Political troubles aggravate relational challenges, revealing the character of the men who made these early attempts.

The book ends with an account of the successful 1999 search to find Mallory and Irvine, to learn whether or not they made it to the summit. Athletes and Arm-chair adventurers alike will find this account gripping and inspiring.

Firstbrook, Peter. Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine. BBC Worldwide, 2000.