On May 1, 1999, my teammates and I discovered the remains of George Mallory high on Everest. Here, I reflect on that day twenty years later, once again on Mount Everest.

Of all sides of Everest - the south from Nepal, the north from Tibet, and the east, also from Tibet - it is the eastern approach via the Kama and Kangshung Valleys, which are the most stunning.

George Mallory (1886-1924) was a gifted climber best known for disappearing on Mount Everest with Andrew Irvine in 1924. But, he was also a thinker, a philosopher; explore this aspect of the man in today's Thursday Thought.

I suppose we go to Mount Everest, granted the opportunity, because—in a word—we can’t help it. Or, to state the matter rather differently, because we are mountaineers…. To refuse the adventure is to run the risk of drying up like a pea in its shell.