A National Geographic documentary crew may have found partial remains of the foot of Andrew “Sandy” Irvine, the famed mountaineer who disappeared on Mount Everest 100 years ago.
The climbers were trekking Everest in late September when they spotted a disembodied foot inside of a boot that appeared perfectly preserved yet undeniably old.
“Lo and behold, there was the name plate ‘A.C Irvine,’ perfectly legible, stamped on the sock,” Mark Fisher, one of the filmmakers who found the shoe, said in an interview. “And when that happened, it was just full freak-out, you know, F bombs and people were like, ‘Oh my god.’”
Irvine and climbing partner George Mallory were last seen by a fellow expedition member on June 8, 1924. It is not known whether the pair ever reached the summit — an important Everest mystery among climbers and historians alike. If they did, it would have been nearly three decades before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first confirmed ascent in 1953.
Mallory’s body was discovered in 1999, but even expeditions dedicated to tracing the pair’s disappearance have never found Irvine’s remains. Many have also unsuccessfully tried to locate the camera Irvine reportedly carried, which might contain the only evidence of whether he and Mallory had reached the summit.
Fisher’s documentary team, which included photographer and director Jimmy Chin and filmmaker Erich Roepke, came across the boot while exploring the Central Rongbuk Glacier on the northern side of Mount Everest.
Members of Irvine’s family have offered to share samples of their DNA to help verify whether the partial remains belong to Irvine, according to National Geographic. If confirmed, the foot would be the first definitive evidence of his body since he vanished.
While the location of the foot may provide some clues as to what happened on the mountain, Irvine’s whereabouts at the time of his death are still unknown. The finding could also raise some new questions: Did he fall off the mountain? How did he become dismembered? Was it before or after his death?
Fisher, a climber and the owner of an Idaho-based production company, said that while the documentary team had long been fascinated with the story of Mallory and Irvine, they never expected to play a part in unraveling the mystery.
Moving along the Rongbuk Glacier, he said, it’s common to see artifacts left by climbers over the decades. Most of them are insignificant: a tin can, a graft of clothing, an old basket or a ski pole.
But the mood shifted when, during one hike, the team came across an oxygen bottle stamped with the date 1933. It was the year that another failed British Everest expedition found an ice ax belonging to Irvine.
“And then we started surmising like, ‘Oh, could it be?’ Because there’s so many theories about what happened to Irvine, right?” Fisher said. “And we did start joking with each other, saying, ‘Oh, we’re gonna find Irvine, and we’re gonna find his camera.’”
If this artifact was nearby, Fisher said, maybe the team was close to another clue. So they returned a week later to look around further — just in case. That’s when they found the boot.
“There was a lot of excitement about what we just found, because it was undeniable,” Fisher said. “We haven’t done DNA tests yet, so we can’t 100% say with certainty that this is indeed Irvine’s boot, but like I said, the nameplate is perfectly stitched on there. It’s perfectly legible. It’s the exact match of Mallory’s boot.”
Fisher did not give an estimated timeline for how long the DNA tests would take.
The team, he said, believes the boot likely thawed out of a frozen glacier no more than a week before they discovered it, since it was so well preserved. The documentary crew at first decided to leave it where they found it, but realized the artifact might soon be damaged by wildlife and natural elements.
They’re now working with authorities to transfer the boot to Irvine’s family, according to Fisher.
