A sock tagged with "A.C. Irvine", along with a boot, has been discovered on the Central Rongbuk Glacier below the North Face of Mount Everest by a team led by Jimmy Chin.Jimmy Chin
Posted on 10/19/2024 6:13:18 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
It was the call the family of a young British climber who went missing on Everest 100 years ago had given up hope of ever getting.
Last month, a team of climbers filming a National Geographic documentary stumbled on a preserved boot, revealed by melting ice on a glacier.
This boot was believed to belong to Andrew Comyn "Sandy" Irvine, who disappeared while attempting to climb Everest in June 1924 with his partner George Mallory.
What's more, it could potentially help solve one of mountaineering's biggest mysteries: whether or not the pair succeeded in becoming the first people to summit Everest, 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the top.
Well-known adventurer Jimmy Chin, who led the team for National Geographic, hailed the discovery of the boot - with a foot inside it - as a "monumental and emotional moment".
But for Irvine's great-niece Julie Summers it was simply "extraordinary".
"I just froze.... We had all given up any hope any trace of him would be found," she told the BBC.
A number of people have searched for Irvine's body over the years, partly because the 22-year-old is said to have been carrying a camera with an undeveloped film inside, potentially with a photograph of the pair at the summit.
Could the discovery of the boot be the first step to finding his body - and the camera?
The family have now given a DNA sample to help confirm the foot is indeed Irvine - but the filmmaking team is fairly confident it belongs to the mountaineer. The sock found inside the boot has a name tag stitched into it with the words "A.C. Irvine".
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
A sock tagged with "A.C. Irvine", along with a boot, has been discovered on the Central Rongbuk Glacier below the North Face of Mount Everest by a team led by Jimmy Chin.Jimmy Chin
Simple, look for a really old guy with a wooden leg.
They were stumped.
It would definitely be interesting if they could find a camera with pictures in it. Of course, pictures may or may not prove they made it to the summit. Back then, knowledge about Everest was very limited.
Well, Hillary C. will have to change her name now. Irvine Clinton?
At least he made it there BEFORE she was born!
Those were some hearty men. That boot looks a Justin work boot with some fence staples in the sole. My feet get cold climbing in the Rockies in the winter. I am wearing Sportiva Nepal Cubes.
Groan! But that’s a good one!
So, BBC lies. There was no foot there was a sock and boot
Dear Mrs. Irvine: We have some good news, we found your son’s foot.
Big Foot ate the body and all but the foot
Apparently, there is something afoot upon Mt. Everest!
“Could the discovery of the BOOT be the FIRST STEP to finding his body - and the camera?”
OK, that cracked me up! :)
LOL, looks like the article was written by a real heel.
She has to stay antipodal to Mt Everest to keep the Earth from going out of balance.
Mallory’s hobnailed boots were sticking out, so the identification of his more or less intact body was basically immediate.
*SNORT* :)
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