A recent discovery may have finally solved a 100-year-old Mount Everest cold case. Officials believe they found partial remains of a British climber. He went missing a century ago.
National Geographic reported the shocking discovery. Its documentary team stumbled across a boot while climbing Mount Everest. They were scaling Central Rongbuk Glacier near the north face. However, it gets even more grisly. The team soon discovered there was a severed foot inside the boot wearing a sock.
"I lifted up the sock," said photographer and director Jimmy Chin, "and there's a red label that has A.C. IRVINE stitched into it." That's the name of the British climber that went missing. In 1924, climber Andrew Irvine and George Malloy both disappeared trying to become the first scale Mount Everest.
People eventually stumbled across Malloy's remains in 199. But no one ever knew what happened to Irvine. The discovery sent ripples through the Mount Everest crew. Chin said they "were all literally running in circles dropping F-bombs." So what's all the fuss over 100 year remains? Well, Chin pointed out something in particular.
Mount Everest Mystery
The remains may answer if Mallory and Irvine successfully scaled Mount Everest. If so, they would be the first to do so. Currently, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, in 1953, hold that honor.
Likewise, the team hopes to finally bring some closure to Irvine's descendants. Chin ended up calling his great niece Julie Summers to share the discovery with her.
"When Jimmy told me that he saw the name A.C. Irvine on the label on the sock inside the boot, I found myself moved to tears," Summers said. "It was and will remain an extraordinary and poignant moment."
The team is hopeful that this is just the beginning of new evidence to find. After all, Mount Everest is full of mysteries! There's still the mystery of what exactly happened to the two climbers.
Following making the discovery, the team requested permission from the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) to remove the severed foot from the mountain. They also ended up taking samples of DNA.
"But I mean, dude," Chin added. "There's a label on it."
