Foot found on Everest could be that of a climber who disappeared 100 years ago and change the history of summit climbs
Andrew Comyn Irvine, known as “Sandy”, disappeared aged 24 while attempting to climb Everest in June 1924 with fellow expedition member George Mallory. His body was never found, a situation that may have changed now with the discovery of a boot with a foot by a team filming a documentary for “National Geographic”.
If it is confirmed that it belongs to the British climber who disappeared 100 years ago, this could change the story of the climb to the summit of Mount Everest and help solve one of the greatest mysteries in mountaineering: whether or not the duo Andrew Comyn Irvine and George Mallory were the ones to first to reach the top of this mythical mountain? If confirmed, it would have occurred 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, until now considered the pioneers.
The discovery is from September. The British BBC reports that, last month, a team of climbers filming the aforementioned documentary “stumbled” on a preserved boot with a foot inside it, which became visible thanks to the melting of ice in a glacier. The team was descending the Rongbuk Central Glacier on the north face of Everest, and spotted an oxygen bottle dated 1933, when an expedition went to look for the bodies of the two climbers.
It was with emotion and enthusiasm that Sandy’s family received the news of the discovery. “Extraordinary,” said Irvine’s great-niece, Julie Summers. “I was paralyzed…. We had all given up hope of finding any trace of him”, confessed Julie Summers, to the BBC.
Irvine’s body has been sought over the years because it is believed the young climber was carrying a camera with undeveloped film inside. And this film may have proof of the duo’s arrival at the summit in 1924. Mallory’s body was found in 1999 by an American climber, but Sandy’s was never discovered.
The family provided a DNA sample to help confirm that the foot found is indeed Irvine’s. But the film crew is pretty confident, as the foot has a sock on it with a sewn-on label with the words “AC Irvine.”
Chin – known for having directed the Oscar-winning climbing documentary, “Free Solo”, a project he made with his wife, reporting for National Geographic – is convinced that the foot really belongs to Irvine. It was a fortuitous find, and climbers estimated that the ice only melted a week before its discovery.
The foot was removed from the mountain to prevent it from deteriorating, and handed over to the Chinese mountaineering authorities who govern the north face of Everest.
Last seen in June 1924
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Irvine’s disappearance, the family is excited about the discovery. Julie Summers remembers growing up hearing stories of her grandmother’s adventurous, Oxford-educated younger brother, who was known as “Uncle Sandy.”
“My grandmother had a photo of him by her bed until the day she died”, he recalls. “She said he was a better man than anyone else would ever be.”
Irvine, born in Birkenhead, was just 22 when he disappeared and was the youngest member of an expedition that intrigued the mountaineering world for a century.
Sandy and Mallory were last seen alive on June 8, 1924, as they headed toward the summit.
History of Everest may change
In recent decades, the search for the remains of the two climbers has been shrouded in controversy, due to suspicions that the bodies were moved. Julie Summers clarifies that the family has always rejected suspicions and shows “relief” after Chin’s call, revealing that Sandy “was still on the mountain”.
If it is now proven that Irvine and Mallory reached the summit in 1924, they became the first to do so, Summers acknowledges that it would be a revelation that would “turn the history of mountaineering upside down”.
“It would be nice – we would all feel very proud,” she said. “But the family always kept the mystery, and the story of how far they came and how brave they were was really what was at stake,” she admitted to the BBC. “The only way we will know is if we find a photo on the camera he had”, he emphasizes.
The search for the camera should continue like this, close to the place where the boot was found.
