100 Years Later, Remains of Everest Climber.
Remains of an Everest climber who may have reached the summit 29 years before Sir Edmund Hillary are discovered 100 years later. The partial remains of British mountaineer Andrew “Sandy” Irvine, who disappeared on Mount Everest in 1924, have been discovered nearly a century after he vanished while attempting to reach the summit with fellow climber George Mallory.
The discovery could
provide new clues in one of mountaineering’s greatest mysteries: whether Irvine
and Mallory reached the summit of Everest nearly three decades before Edmund
Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first officially recognized ascent in 1953.
Irvine was just 22
when he disappeared on June 8, 1924, during the pair’s attempt to become the
first climbers to reach the world’s highest peak.
Neither Irvine nor
Mallory returned from the climb.
For 100 years, their
fate—and whether they had reached the summit before dying—remained unknown.
On the Central
Rongbuk Glacier, below Everest's northern face, a team led by renowned climber
and filmmaker Jimmy Chin has discovered what are believed to be Irvine's
partial remains. The discovery was made in September 2024 while Chin and his
team were filming a documentary for National Geographic. They found a climbing boot emerging from
melting ice. Inside was a foot and a
sock bearing a name label embroidered with “A.C. Irvine.”
The condition of the
discovery suggests the remains had only recently emerged from the glacier. Before the team discovered the boot, Chin
stated that he believed the ice may have melted. The team did not immediately
reveal the exact location of the discovery, partly to protect the site from
people searching for souvenirs or other artifacts.
The remains were
handed over to the China Tibet Mountaineering Association, which oversees
climbing activities on Everest’s northern side.
In addition, Irvine's family agreed to provide DNA samples for his
identity verification. For Irvine’s family, the discovery was deeply emotional.
His great-niece and
biographer, Julie Summers, said she had grown up hearing about the mystery
surrounding her great-uncle.
She said she was
moved to tears when Chin told her that the sock inside the boot carried
Irvine’s name.
The discovery also
comes decades after Mallory’s body was found on Everest in 1999. Mallory was discovered at a higher elevation,
but his remains did not solve the central question of whether the two men had
reached the summit.
One particularly
intriguing clue is that Mallory was not found carrying a photograph of his
wife, Ruth. Before the expedition, he
had reportedly planned to carry her photograph to the summit and leave it there
if he succeeded.
That has fueled
speculation that Mallory and Irvine may have reached the top before their fatal
descent.
However, there is
still no conclusive evidence that they made it.
One object could
potentially change that.
Irvine is believed to
have been carrying a camera during the 1924 expedition. If that camera were ever found and its film
survived well enough to be developed, the photographs could provide the
strongest evidence yet of whether the pair reached Everest’s summit.
But the camera was
not found during the latest expedition.
Jimmy Chin described
the discovery as a “monumental and emotional moment”, saying it could finally
bring some peace to Irvine’s family and to the mountaineering community.
The discovery does
not prove that Irvine and Mallory reached the summit.
But after 100 years
of uncertainty, it has narrowed the search and brought investigators closer to
answering one of Everest’s oldest questions:
Did two young British
climbers reach the top of the world in 1924—29 years before Hillary and
Tenzing?
For now, the mystery
remains.
But Everest has
finally given up one of its oldest secrets.
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