CNN's Thom Patterson and Dan Moriarty and HLN's Jonathan Anker contributed to this report.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

"That moment was singular in the whole expedition, " says Conrad Anker.

NPR: Chang Tang's Endangered Antelope

Anker filed for bankruptcy in 2002, wiping out First Reserve's investment.

FORBES: The Connecticut Oil Baron

Mr Anker also writes sensitively of his own successful summit bid.

ECONOMIST: Madness and its men

Along with Rowell, there was Conrad Anker, one of the greatest American mountain climbers, and Jimmy Chin, a Wyoming-based climber and photographer with a reputation for steadfastness.

NPR: Chang Tang's Endangered Antelope

"We were shocked to see a goldmine, " says Anker.

NPR: Chang Tang's Endangered Antelope

We may never know, but Mr Anker concludes his account with the measured view that it is extremely unlikely that climbers in the 1920s could have made it, with or without oxygen.

ECONOMIST: Madness and its men