Sandy Irvine: Human foot found on Everest could hold key to one of mountaineering's greatest mysteries

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When a National Geographic documentary crew discovered a boot and sock sticking out of a melting glacier on Mount Everest in September, they almost immediately recognized its significance as a clue to a centuries-old mystery.

The name tag still sewn onto the wool sock read “AC Irvine,” revealing that it was probably British mountaineer Andrew “Sandy” Irvine. Irvine's disappearance on Everest in 1924 along with his compatriot George Mallory is one of mountaineering's greatest mysteries – with a solution that has the potential to change history.

The couple disappeared 800 feet below the summit of Everest on June 8, 1924, as they set out to complete the first documented ascent of the world's highest mountain. But whether they reached the summit and became the first known people to reach this milestone before dying is still unknown.

While Mallory's body was discovered in 1999, neither Irvine's body nor the camera the climbers were carrying, which could reveal whether they reached the summit, were ever found.

Until that final expedition, during which the National Geographic team, which included “Free Solo” co-director Jimmy Chin, discovered a foot in Irvine’s boot. As they wait for DNA confirmation and compare samples from the foot with those of members of Irvine's family, this appears to be the first evidence of his death since his disappearance.

“It's the first real evidence of where Sandy landed,” Chin said, according to National Geographic. “Many theories have been put forward.

“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.”

A few days before they found the boot, the team discovered an oxygen cylinder from a 1933 expedition that had also attempted to climb Mount Everest. Although this expedition failed, it had found an ice ax belonging to Irvine on the mountain's northeast ridge, leading Chin's team to suspect that they might be near his body.

According to this hypothesis, they spent the next few days searching the glacier until filmmaker and climber Erich Roepke discovered the boot.

“I think it literally melted a week before we found it,” Chin said.

Chin and the team took the boot and foot off the mountain in a cooler when they noticed that birds were bothering it and gave it to the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA).

Shortly after their discovery, the team informed Irvine's family, including his great-niece Julie Summers, who has written a book about the climber.

According to news agency PA Media, Summers was “moved to tears” when she learned of the boot’s existence in an “extraordinary and poignant moment”.

“I have lived with this story since I was seven years old when my father told us about the mystery of Uncle Sandy on Everest,” she added.

“The story became more real when mountaineers found George Mallory's body in 1999, and I wondered if Sandy's body would be discovered next. A quarter of a century after this discovery, it seemed extremely unlikely that anything new would be found.”