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Lost climber Sandy Irvine's foot believed to have been found on Mount Everest 100 years after he vanished
The discovery may help resolve a century-old mystery surrounding Irvine's disappearance and whether he and George Mallory, succeeded in reaching the summit
The 100-year-old mystery surrounding mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Comyn “Sandy” Irvine may be getting closer to being solved. The partial remains of the 22-year-old climber who vanished during the 1924 British Everest Expedition are believed to have been found. During an expedition last month, a National Geographic documentary team discovered an old, worn-out leather boot with steel hobnails. Inside the shoe was a frozen human foot encased in a sock embroidered with the name “A.C. IRVINE.”
Andrew ‘Sandy’ Irvine's foot believed to have been found on Mount Everest
In September, the team, including photographer and director Jimmy Chin and filmmakers and climbers Erich Roepke and Mark Fisher, ventured on the broad expanse of the Central Rongbuk Glacier below the north face of Mount Everest. “I lifted up the sock,” Chin said while describing the moment.
“And there’s a red label that has A.C. IRVINE stitched into it,” he went on, adding that he and his companions recognized what the discovery meant. “We were all literally running in circles dropping F-bombs,” Chin added.
The discovery could potentially help resolve a century-old mystery surrounding Irvine's disappearance and whether he and his partner, Mallory, succeeded in reaching the summit before their deaths.
Should they have made it to the top before losing their lives during the descent, they would have achieved the incredible feat 29 years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
Chin’s team had previously found a 1933 oxygen cylinder near the Central Rongbuk Glacier, which likely came from the fourth British Everest attempt. The discovery of Irvine's partial remains is one of the biggest breakthroughs in the great Everest mystery. While Mallory's remains were found in 1999, Irvine's had been unknown.
“It's the first real evidence of where Sandy ended up,” Chin said. “A lot of theories have been put out there,” he went on, adding that he hopes the discovery could help bring some closure to Irvine’s family, who have volunteered DNA samples.
“When someone disappears and there’s no evidence of what happened to them, it can be really challenging for families. And just having some definitive information of where Sandy might’ve ended up is certainly [helpful], and also a big clue for the climbing community as to what happened,” Chin said.
