Massive news from Mount Everest as a crew with National Geographic, including legendary filmmaker Jimmy Chin, believes they’ve discovered remains of early Everest explorer Andrew Comyn “Sandy” Irvine below the north face of the world’s tallest mountain.
Jimmy Chin, Erich Roepke and Mark Fisher were on the Central Rongbuk Glacier when they spotted a boot melting out of the ice. As they approached it became clear that the boot was from around 100 years ago, and upon further inspection a red logo with “A.C. IRVINE” stitched into it became visible. Inside the boot are the partial remains of who they believe is Sandy Irvine.
“I lifted up the sock and there’s a red label that has A.C. IRVINE stitched into it. We were all literally running in circles dropping F-bombs.” – Jimmy Chin
Irvine disappeared on Mount Everest on June 8, 1924, when he was just 22, with his co-climber George Mallory. They were last spotted around 800 feet from the summit of the legendary mountain. From there, their path is a mystery, and whether or not they made it to the top is unknown.
Mallory’s remains were discovered in 1999, but whether or not they reached the summit remained unknown. If they did, they would have been the first by around 29 years. If not, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary would remain the first with their summit in 1953.
While this discovery does not confirm whether or not Irvine and Mallory reached the summit, it does narrow down the search area for the rest of his remains. Undeveloped film inside a Kodak Vest Pocket Camera once held by Irvine could contain the only evidence one way or another, but that camera remains undiscovered.
Chin has not revealed the exact location of where the foot was found in order to discourage treasure hunting. DNA samples were taken to further confirm that this was in fact Irvine’s foot.