100-year-old Mystery Solved? - A Blog for Nat Geo

A National Geographic expedition to Mount Everest has found remains believed to be of a renowned British climber who disappeared on a remote face of the world's highest mountain a century ago. The 22-year-old climber vanished on a historic ascent in 1924. The remains included a foot inside the mountaineer's boot, his name stitched into the sock.

The discovery was made by a small team including NationalGeographic Explorer, photographer, and climber Jimmy Chin, who directed the Oscar-winning documentary "Free Solo."

In September, on the broad expanse of the Central Rongbuk Glacier, below the north face of Mount Everest, a National Geographic documentary team that included the photographer and director Jimmy Chin, along with filmmakers and climbers Erich Roepke and Mark Fisher, examined the boot more closely. Inside, they discovered a foot, remains that they instantly recognized as belonging to Andrew Comyn Irvine, or Sandy, as he was known, who vanished 100 years ago with the famed climber George Mallory. 

“I lifted up the sock,” Chin says, describing the moment, “and there’s a red label that has A.C. IRVINE stitched into it.” Chin says he and his companions recognized the significance of the moment in unison. “We were all literally running in circles dropping F-bombs.” 

Irvine and Mallory were last seen on June 8, 1924, while attempting to become the first people to reach the top of the world’s highest peak. The question of whether they had summited has endured as the greatest climbing mystery of all time. If Irvine and Mallory succeeded, their feat would have come some 29 years before Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary finally reached the top of Everest.