Upon the mountain Mountaineers obsessed with Everest admit that for them there is only one legend associated with the mountain: George Leigh Mallory. Even Reinhold Messner, who changed singlehandedly the craft and techniques of high altitude climbing and whose record above 26,000 feet stands unsurpassed, wrote that as a young climber in the Alps it was the account of Mallory?s disappearance on the North Face of Everest that drove him to the mountain. Messner?s breathtaking solo climb in 1980, in fact, closely followed Mallory?s route. Mallory and his co-climber, Andrew Irvine, were last seen by Noel Odell in June 1924, as two black dots very close to the summit and they were climbing expeditiously. Their disappearance so close to the peak raised a number of questions: what had happened to them? had they made it to the top or not? The mystery surrounding Mallory and Irvine?s deaths is as close to being solved as it ever will be. A group of dedicated mountaineers who scaled the North Face of the world?s highest mountain with the specific purpose of solving the mystery stunned the mountaineering fraternity when they actually discovered Mallory?s body some 2,000 feet below the summit. This discovery must rank as one of the most remarkable of this century in this particular field. That the body is that of Mallory is certain from the name tag on his shirt and from a letter written by his wife which he had close to his chest. The evidence strongly suggests that he died after a fall and that he was on his way down; also when he fell the light was getting scarce since Mallory?s goggles have been found in a chest pocket. It is nice to think that they had been up to the top and were descending as dusk was closing in on the mountain. But such a claim will have to depend on stronger evidence. The team of mountaineers now back at base camp will make another sortie on the mountain to locate the camera that Mallory was carrying. That camera when it is found will prove if Mallory and Irvine were the first to stand on the third pole. Whatever the evidence, the romance around Mallory will remain: the man who opened up the North Col route, climbing without oxygen and with primitive equipment. There is perhaps a case for letting his mystery stay with the mountain he so loved.