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Hey, this is Andy Politz calling from ABC on Everest. Let's see, Dave, Tap, and I were searching up high, very high, kind of thinking the guys might've walked off the hill, Mallory and Irvine, and Jake and Conrad were down low, kind of searching in a horizontal pattern because that's the way the terrain was laid out. That's the way you had to search it. We each had a radio to communicate to each other, and we knew other expeditions were listening in on our frequency. And at 27,000 feet, we were almost constantly receiving phone calls bleeding onto our frequency... just to complicate things. We had great concern for the security of our communication, and as soon as Conrad found the body, we went into a radio silence and didn't talk at all from there on.

But the image that'll stick in my mind forever is of this man fighting for his life right to the very end. He did not give up until he had stopped, and by then it would have been clear that there was no hope, for their support and resources in 1924 were just so marginal that there was no room for any kind of mistake. And I can just imagine him realizing that there was no chance of survival. The pictures and video will show this clearly.

However, the history, and clues, and abilities of the climbers, and the gear are very subtle from that era, and each piece of evidence we find radically alters the theories that evolve. So we're not really ready to speculate at this point on any summit success, or when the fall happened, or how it happened. However, the clues we're finding are hauntingly packed with information that's just blowing us away every single day as it settles in.

And I'm very proud of the crew I was with and how they handled the body with dignity, the artifacts, and the memory of the man himself. And I'm honored to be standing next to these guys. I'm impressed.

I'll never forget either this man — this guy's arm. I think it just summarizes his strength, and his catlike agility, and his tenacity in not giving up.

Conditions up there on May 1st were fair for such altitudes as we know by now at 27,000': probably 20-30mph winds; pretty darn cold, well below 0° I would say; exposed skin was freezing and he was frozen into an ice-gravel mixture; very difficult to chip away at 27,000', of course, without oxygen. Because wearing the oxygen and a pack, it's too hard to maneuver, and then putting a mask on, it's too hard to communicate with the rest of the crew.

And that's about it. That's all I've got. We're going to head down and take a rest, and go back up and conclude our searches probably. Hopefully one more shot, one more round will do it. Thanks for listening folks, and we'll see you around. Bye.

—Andy Politz, Climber
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The Expedition Leader and High Altitude Search Team's Dispatches on Finding Mallory:

• Eric Simonson Announces Mallory's Body is Found
  
• Dave Hahn: Climbers Amazed by Discovery at 27,000'
  
• Conrad Anker: A Patch of White
  
• Tap Richards: A Peaceful Spot In A Great Space
  
• Andy Politz: An Image That Will Stick In My My Mind Forever
  
• Jake Norton: Kind of An Eerie Job

• Statement From George Mallory's Family

DISPATCHES