Human foot found on Everest has potential to change history
A National Geographic documentary team may have unearthed a clue to one of mountaineering's longest unsolved mysteries. The team found a boot and sock protruding from a melting glacier on Mount Everest in September. A name label on the woolen sock read "A.C. Irvine," suggesting it belonged to British climber Andrew "Sandy" Irvine who disappeared on Everest in 1924. Climate change is thinning snow and ice, increasingly exposing the bodies of mountaineers who died while scaling the mountain.
Irvine's disappearance: A century-old Everest mystery
Irvine and his fellow climber George Mallory disappeared on June 8, 1924, a mere 800 feet below Everest's summit. They were attempting the first documented ascent of the world's tallest mountain. While Mallory's body was discovered in 1999, neither Irvine's remains nor their camera—which could confirm if they reached the summit—have been found until now.
Discovery offers 1st evidence of Irvine's fate
The National Geographic team, including "Free Solo" co-director Jimmy Chin, discovered the foot inside the boot thought to be Irvine's. This find is being hailed as the first tangible evidence of Irvine's fate since he disappeared. "It's the first real evidence of where Sandy ended up," Chin told National Geographic. The team is now awaiting DNA confirmation by comparing samples from the foot with those taken from Irvine's family members.
Earlier discovery led team to possible Irvine's remains
Before finding the boot, the team had also found an oxygen cylinder from a 1933 expedition that had attempted to scale Mount Everest. The earlier expedition had found an ice ax, believed to belong to Irvine, on the mountain's northeast ridge. This led Chin's team to speculate they might be near his body, prompting them to intensify their search in that area.
Who first scaled Everent now a question
The discovery could provide additional clues as to the location of the team's personal possessions, as well as help in answering one of mountaineering's most enduring mysteries: whether Irvine and Mallory ever reached the summit. This could confirm Irvine and Mallory's status as the first to successfully ascend the peak, over three decades before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit in 1953.
Irvine's family informed about the poignant discovery
After the National Geographic team's discovery, they notified Irvine's family, including his great-niece Julie Summers who has written a book about the climber. "I have lived with this story since I was a seven-year-old when my father told us about the mystery of Uncle Sandy on Everest," Summers said. She described learning of the boot's existence as an "extraordinary and poignant moment." Over 300 individuals have perished on the mountain since expeditions began in the 1920s.
