This story appears in the July 2020 issue of National Geographic magazine.
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Our team climbed Everest to try to solve its greatest mystery
Were Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay really the first to summit the world’s highest peak? We searched for a camera that could rewrite history.
As the sun rises above the Tibetan Plateau, Pasang Kaji Sherpa (front) and Lhakpa Tenje Sherpa pass 28,700 feet on Mount Everest. The big question: Did George Mallory and Sandy Irvine get this far—or perhaps reach the top—in 1924?
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