FILM

Houston Museum of Natural Science Wortham IMAX® Theatre presents The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest.

In 1999, renowned American mountaineer Conrad Anker made a discovery that reverberated around the globe. High in Mount Everest’s “death zone,” he found the body of George Mallory, 75 years after the British explorer mysteriously vanished during his attempt to become the first man to summit the world’s tallest peak.

Mallory had risked everything as he set out, dressed in gabardine and hobnailed boots, in pursuit of his dream of reaching the top of Everest, which in 1924 was the last great adventure left to man. He was last spotted alive just 800 feet below the summit. Then, the clouds rolled in and Mallory vanished into legend.

After discovering Mallory’s body, Conrad Anker’s life became intertwined with Mallory’s story. Remarkably, Mallory’s body was found with all his belongings intact. The only thing missing was a photograph of Ruth, which Mallory had promised to place on the summit. Haunted by Mallory's story, Conrad longed to return to Everest to lay Mallory’s ghost to rest.

In the quest for answers, Anker finally returns to Everest in 2007 with British climbing prodigy Leo Houlding, replicating as closely as possible Mallory’s ill-fated expedition. The men retrace the North East Ridge Route, even removing the ladder from the infamous Second Step to “free climb” this dangerous 90-foot sheer rock wall just as Mallory and Irvine would have had to do 83 years earlier.