NZ mountaineer Graeme Dingle has today highlighted occasional speculation that doomed 1920s British climber George Mallory was gay and that his attempt to summit Mt Everest was doomed because he chose a companion climber because of an attachment between the two rather than on mountaineering expertise. Mountaineer: George Mallory Dingle's comments come after disgraced UK politician and author Geoffrey Archer revisited, in his latest book, claims that Mallory died just below the summit of the world's highest peak whilst returning from the tip rather than trying to stagger up the final few metres. Dingle notes speculation that the maried Mallory, whose body was found on Everest only in recent years, was gay and had a romantic relaitonship with climbing partner Andrew Irvine. In today's Sunday Star Times Dingle defends Sir Edmund Hillary's eventual conquest of Everest, adding that "Some have said the flaw of Mallory's character was he chose Irvine because of a possible gay relationship, an not based on good, sound mountaineering judgement." Mallory's alleged homosexuality has never been reliably confirmed.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 15th March 2009 - 7:31pm