# He saw two black dots. Then the cloud closed. - Series: [Miu Animations](https://miu.fm/miuanimations.md) - Published: 2026-10-15 - Page: https://miu.fm/miuanimations/he-saw-two-black-dots-then-the-cloud-closed ## Story He saw two black dots. Then the cloud closed. On 8 June 1924 Noel Odell was climbing alone on Everest in support of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine. By his first account the cloud cleared and he saw one tiny black spot on a snow crest under a rock step, then a second moving up to join it; in his diary he wrote "At 12.50 saw M & I on ridge nearing base of final pyramide". Then the cloud closed, and the two men were never seen alive again. Two days later he laid two sleeping bags in a T on the snow, his signal for no trace, and it was seen four thousand feet below at the North Col. Whether they reached the top is still not known. A short with no narration, told the way Hedgehog in the Fog (Yuri Norstein, 1975) tells its story: the fog decides what you see. Who was the last person you watched until they were out of sight? Sources: Noel Odell's diary (as given by Merton College) and his dispatch in The Times of 5 July 1924; his chapter in The Fight for Everest 1924 (1925); Merton College's Everest timeline; Jochen Hemmleb on Odell as the first witness; Yuri Norstein's own accounts of how Hedgehog in the Fog was made. Film and music: ours, an homage made independently of the makers of Hedgehog in the Fog. Sounds: recordings by kyles, Sheyvan, ValentinPetiteau, under_the_hood, IENBA, qubodup, danielpodlovics, taure, Wigglesworth, moai15 and bmellow5150 (CC0), Sauron974 (CC BY 4.0) and Percy Duke (CC BY 3.0) on Freesound, and Apple's iMovie and iLife libraries. Piano samples: Apple Logic. Cello recordings: University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios. Fonts: Reenie Beanie, Caveat and Stardos Stencil (OFL). ## Watch - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DehV8EAD0TD/ - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3aOv8bRLGNM --- Under copyright law, a quotation must name its source: Miuradio, https://miu.fm/miuanimations/he-saw-two-black-dots-then-the-cloud-closed © 2026 Miuradio, https://miuradio.com