Last month we covered climbers Conrad Anker and Leo Houlding’s Altitude Everest Expedition. The team has been retracing the last journey of George Mallory and Andrew ‘Sandy’ Irvine to see if the men could have been the first to climb Everest. Anker and Houlding also have been testing 1924 replica clothing on the mountain and planned to free climb the 100-foot Second Step, which has been the crux of the did-they-or-didn't-they-summit debate.

Well, early this morning Anker and Houlding free climbed the Second Step and went on to summit the mountain. The expedition team removed the ladder which was bolted to the Second Step, allowing Anker and Houlding to confront the Second Step as Mallory and Irvine might have done 83 years ago.

According to the Expedition Diary Anker said of the step, “that was hard!”