Remains of Sandy Irvine are believed to have been found on Everest

When they discovered it, there was no doubt about what they saw: a boot melting from the ice. As they got closer, they could see that the cracked leather was old and worn, and the sole was studded and secured with diamond-shaped steel nails from a bygone era of climbing.

In September, a National Geographic documentary team that included photographer and director Jimmy Chin and filmmakers and climbers Erich Roepke and Mark Fisher took a closer look at the boot on the vast expanse of the central Rongbuk Glacier below the north face of Mount Everest. Inside they discovered a foot, remains which they immediately recognized as belonging to Andrew Comyn Irvine, or Sandy as he was known, who disappeared 100 years ago with the famous mountaineer George Mallory.

“I lifted the sock,” says Chin, describing the moment, “and there is a red label with AC IRVINE sewn into it.” Chin says he and his companions simultaneously recognized the importance of this moment. “We were literally all running in circles and dropping f-bombs.”

Irvine and Mallory were last seen on June 8, 1924, attempting to become the first people to climb the world's highest peak. The question of whether they had reached the summit remains the greatest climbing mystery of all time. If Irvine and Mallory had succeeded, their feat would have been achieved some 29 years before Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary finally conquered Everest.

Mallory's remains were found in 1999, while Irvine's whereabouts were unknown. “It's the first real evidence of where Sandy landed,” Chin says of the discovery. “Many theories have been put forward.” He hopes the discovery will help explain what happened on the mountain in 1924 and bring closure to Irvine's relatives who still revere him. “When someone goes missing and there is no evidence of what happened to them, it can be very challenging for families. And it's definitely helpful to have some definitive information about where Sandy might have landed, and it's also an important clue to the climbing community about what happened.”

One of Chin's first calls to share the news was to Irvine's great-niece Julie Summers, 64, who wrote a biography of Irvine in 2001 and has championed his contributions to mountaineering for years. She was grateful for the news. “It’s an object that belonged to him and has a part of him in it,” she says of the boot. “It tells the whole story of what probably happened.” Summers suspects the remains were swept down the mountain by avalanches and crushed by the migrating glacier. “I see it as something that is close to completion.” Members of the family have volunteered to provide DNA samples to compare with the remains and confirm their identities.

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Summers said the discovery brought back memories of the news in 1999 that Mallory's body had been found by alpinist Conrad Anker as part of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition, which sought to resolve the question of whether the pair had actually reached the summit. An examination of his remains revealed deep rope marks that could indicate a fall that was broken by a rope wrapped around his waist – evidence that suggests to Anker that Mallory and Irvine were tied together in their final moments. “I knew immediately that he was attached to his partner and that he had suffered a serious fall,” Anker wrote in “The Lost Explorer,” co-authored with David Roberts. Mallory's right leg was badly broken and his uninjured left leg lay carefully over the break, suggesting he did not die immediately in the fall. His dark snow goggles were in his pocket, leading to speculation that the fall may have occurred in the evening as the two were descending. The photo of his wife that Mallory wanted to leave behind at the summit was not with him.

The discovery of Mallory's remains answered several questions about the fate of the two men, but left two major questions unanswered. Where was Irvine? And had the couple reached the summit? Mountaineers and historians have long thought that answering the first question might provide clues to the second. After all, it was Irvine who had been carrying the Kodak Vest Pocket Camera, borrowed from expedition member Howard Somervell. It was believed that the undeveloped film within may contain the only conclusive evidence of their success. And so the search for Irvine's body gained more interest – in some circles on a par with the search for Amelia Earhart or Michael Rockefeller.

In September, several days before they encountered the boot, Chin said, the team was descending the central Rongbuk Glacier when they found another artifact that piqued their curiosity. “We discovered an oxygen cylinder with the date 1933 on it,” he says. Nine years after Mallory and Irvine's disappearance, the 1933 British Everest Expedition was the fourth attempt to climb the mountain. It also ended in failure, but members of the 1933 expedition found an ice ax belonging to Sandy Irvine high on the northeast ridge, although well below where Mallory was found.

(This is why Mount Everest constantly changes height.)

The 1933 discovery of the oxygen cylinder got Chin and his teammates thinking. “If Sandy had fallen down the north wall, his remains or body could be somewhere nearby,” Chin says. They began to speculate that if an oxygen cylinder had fallen from the mountain, “it probably fell much further than a body – more like a rocket.”

Chin suspected that Irvine's remains might be nearby. “Sandy could possibly be a few hundred meters up the glacier from here towards the mountain,” he told Erich Roepke. In the days that followed, Chin and his team began taking a detour through the folds and crevasses of the glacier. “It was actually Erich who spotted something and said, 'Hey, what's that?'” Chin says. It was the boot that emerged from the ice. “I think it literally melted a week before we found it.”

In her book about her great uncleJulie Summers describes Irvine as “a beautiful young man who died in the glory of his youth.” In fact, at 22, Irvine was the youngest member of the 1924 expedition – a mission that followed two earlier British ascents, one in 1921 for exploration possible climbing routes and a second in 1922, which was the first serious attempt to climb the summit. Back then, it took a month or more to reach Everest. The ropes were made of natural fibers, the outerwear was made of wool and gaberdine, and the boots were made of leather – purchased for five pounds and three shillings from James J. Carter, a London bootmaker.

Irvine came from an upper-middle class family in Cheshire, England; He was handsome and athletic, a star rower at Oxford. Nevertheless, Irvine was often criticized for his lack of experience in technical mountaineering before he attempted the mountain in 1924. According to reports, he probably suffered from a learning disability such as dyslexia, which hindered his ability to read, but he was mechanically gifted and excelled in mathematics and engineering. When he joined the expedition, he was immediately appointed oxygen officer and helped improve the design of the team's oxygen cylinders. He earned his place in the summit team through his will and athletic ability. “Irvine,” wrote expedition leader EF Norton in The fight for Everest“was tall and strong – with fine shoulders and comparatively light legs.”Summers says Mallory probably appreciated Irvine's respect for the older climber. Irvine was fiercely loyal to Mallory, she says.

Early on the morning of June 8, 1924, the two men set out for the summit in conditions that Mallory is said to have described as “perfect weather for the job.” They were last spotted by teammate Noel Odell in the afternoon. who reported briefly noticing two tiny figures near the second stage during a brief cloud break. Then they were gone.

(As part of the Everest expedition that built the world's highest weather station.)

Several theories have emerged over the years to explain why Irvine was never found. An idea that Mark Synnott, a writer, climber and National Geographic contributor, suggests in his book The third pole: mystery, obsession and death On Mount Everest, it can be assumed that Chinese climbers may have found the body and the camera long ago and kept it secret. Summers believes the discovery of the boot disproves this idea. “I think Jimmy’s find absolutely answered that question,” she says.

An earlier theory was that in 1975, a Chinese climber came across a body wearing vintage clothing just below the northeast ridge. This sighting became the basis for the target area of ​​the Mallory Irvine Research Expedition in 1999. Members of that team, including Anker, assumed that if they found a body, it would be Irvine's – which could then lead them to Mallory's ( Expedition leader Eric Simonson collected a DNA sample from one of Irvine's relatives to aid identification). After Anker discovered Mallory's remains – the team was conducting a funeral on the mountain – he spoke to Summers. “Conrad Anker told me he was looking for the treasure map and finally found the treasure,” Summers remembers.

A few days after Chin and his team found the boot, they noticed ravens disturbing it. At that point, he says, he asked the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA), the government agency that oversees the north side of Everest, if the team could remove the remains from the mountain. Chin carried the boot and foot in a cooler from Everest and gave them to CTMA. His team also collected a DNA sample, which they are currently working with the British Consulate for further identification. “But I mean, dude,” Chin says. “There’s a label on it.”

Chin declines to elaborate on where exactly the remains were found – saying he wanted to deter trophy hunters. But he is confident that there are more artifacts and perhaps even the camera nearby: “That definitely reduces the search area.”