The partial remains of young British climber Andrew Irvine are believed to have been found on Mount Everest after a century.
Irvine died alongside his fellow climber, George Mallory, whose remains were found in 1999.
The foot was found on a glacier below Everest’s north face, at a lower altitude than Mallory’s body. It is now with the China Tibet Mountaineering Association, which is responsible for climbing permits on Everest’s northern side.
Climber and film director Jimmy Chin told National Geographic, “I lifted up the sock and there’s a red label that has ‘AC Irvine’ stitched into it.”
The two men were last seen making a push for the summit on 8 June 1924. They never returned which led to one of the most enduring mysteries in mountaineering.
A number of people have searched for Irvine’s body over the years, partly because the 22-year-old is said to have been carrying a camera with an undeveloped film inside, potentially with a photograph of the pair at the summit.
Andrew Irvine’s family reaction:
The family have now given a DNA sample to help confirm the foot is indeed Irvine.
Julie Summers, Irvine’s great-niece and biographer, said: “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. The story became more real when climbers found the body of George Mallory in 1999, and I wondered if Sandy’s body would be discovered next.”
Earlier this year, the Nepalese army successfully removed eleven tonnes of rubbish, along with four corpses and one skeleton, from Mount Everest and two other Himalayan peaks.
Estimates suggest that over fifty tonnes of waste and more than 200 bodies remain scattered across Everest. This year, eight climbers either died or went missing, a decrease from the 19 reported last year.
