Letters from climber who vanished on Mount Everest in 1924 published online

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Letters from the British climber George Mallory, who disappeared on Mount Everest in 1924, to his wife Ruth have been published online by his former Cambridge University college. It is 50 to 1 against us but we’ll have a whack yet & do ourselves proud George Mallory in a letter to his wife Ruth It includes the last letter Mallory wrote to her before his final Everest summit attempt. “I know it is pretty stupid to spoil the times I do have you for those when I don’t.” The letters cover topics including Mallory’s first reconnaissance mission to Everest in 1921 and his second expedition there in 1922, when seven sherpas were killed in an avalanche, for which he blamed himself. “Whether it’s George’s wife Ruth writing about how she was posting him plum cakes and a grapefruit to the trenches, or whether it’s his poignant last letter where he says the chances of scaling Everest are ‘50 to 1 against us’, they offer a fascinating insight into the life of this famous Magdalene alumnus.” The letters are free to view on the Magdalene College website, at magdalene.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/mallory-george-herbert-leigh