More clues in 100-year-old Mount Everest mystery as climber’s foot found
Foot, boot and sock believed to belong to Sandy Irvine, who disappeared in George Mallory’s 1924 expedition, discovered on glacier
The partial remains of Andrew “Sandy” Irvine are believed to have been found on the slopes of Mount Everest, a century after he died alongside his fellow British climber George Mallory while attempting – or just possibly returning from – the first ascent of the mountain.
The two men, part of a British expedition to climb the north-east ridge, were last seen making a push for the summit on 8 June 1924. They never returned, leading to one of the most enduring mysteries in mountaineering – whether the two men died after reaching the summit, as members of their team believed.
Mallory’s remains were found in 1999, and last month, a team of climbers and film-makers discovered a foot encased in a climbing boot and sock – on which was sewn a label identifying it as Irvine’s.
“I lifted up the sock and there’s a red label that has ‘AC Irvine’ stitched into it,” the climber and film director Jimmy Chin told National Geographic. “We were all literally running in circles dropping f-bombs.”
