Startling find on Mount Everest appears to solve 100-year-old mystery

The partial remains of Andrew “Sandy” Irvine — who disappeared a century ago while trying to become one of the first people to climb Mount Everest — are believed to have been found on the mountain.A team of National Geographic climbers and filmmakers stumbled upon an old leather boot with steel hobnails on the treacherous north face of the world’s highest mountain last month, according to the outlet.Inside the shoe, the team discovered the remains of a foot encased in a sock embroidered with the name “A.C.IRVINE,” presumably for Andrew Comyn “Sandy” Irvine.“I lifted up the sock, and there’s a red label that has A.C.

IRVINE stitched into it,” team director Jimmy Chin said of the stunning find.The team immediately recognized the importance of what they were looking at, he added.“We were all literally running in circles dropping F-bombs,” Chin recalled.Irvine was only 22 when he and George Mallory vanished while attempting to become the first people to summit Everest on June 8, 1924.Mallory and Irvine were last seen 800 vertical feet from Everest’s peak.The question of whether the pair successfully reached the summit before they disappeared has haunted the climbing community for a century, National Geographic noted.If Mallory and Irvine did make it to the top of Everest – and were lost on their descent – they would have achieved the amazing feat 29 years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay conquered the summit.Mallory’s remains were found in 1999.

He had evidence of a rope still tied around his waist, which suggested that he and Irvine may have been roped together when one or both of them fell, National Geographic explained.The team that discovered Mallory’s remains also found some circumstantial clues that suggested he and Irvine did reach the summit before they died.The researchers discovered several personal effects and letters with Mallory’s remains but did not find a photograph of his wife, Ruth.According to Mall...