A National Geographic expedition has located the remains of what may be the body of Andrew “Sandy” Irvine near Everest in the Himalayas, the magazine reports this Friday. The 22-year-old British climber disappeared near the top of the Earth’s roof on June 8, 1924, while accompanying George Mallory on his first attempt (although it was his third expedition) to climb the highest peak on the planet. Both were seen (and photographed) by Noel Odell, another expedition member, near the second step, the last technical step before the summit. A second later, the fog engulfed them and they were no longer seen.
To this day, it is still unclear whether the two climbers actually hiked Everest. If they had succeeded, they would have been 30 years ahead of the first planned expedition, formed by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzig Norgay on May 29, 1953. Mallory’s body was found by the mountaineer Conrad Anker on an expedition in 1999. with several fractures probably caused by a fall and further away from where they had been seen by Odell, suggesting that he was already back, but it is unclear if ‘he succeeded.
Irvine is located beneath the north face of Everest, on the central Rongbuk Glacier. The National Geographic expedition explained that the area had likely undergone a recent thaw and that this allowed them to see a boot protruding from the ice. “I think it literally melted a week before we found it,” said Jimmy Chin, a photographer and one of the discoverers of the remains. As they got closer, they discovered the boot was antique, “studded and secured with diamond-patterned steel spikes from a bygone era of climbing,” the article describes. Inside, there were still remains of the foot, preserved by the cold, and above all a red label on which one could read AC Irvine. “We were literally all going around in circles swearing,” says Chin, director of National Geographic’s documentary team.
The discovery could help decipher perhaps mountaineering’s greatest mystery: whether Mallory and Irvine managed to reach the summit of Everest. Expeditioners suspect that Irvine’s body (or at least his boot) was swept away by avalanches and crushed by the moving glacier. National Geographic also says that Irvine carried a camera in his pocket, which, if located, could finally solve the mystery of whether or not they reached the highest point on the planet.
