One hundred years later, the remains of George Mallory’s climbing companion were found on Everest

It was a legendary rope party, who wrote the legend of Everest. On June 8, 1924, the famous mountaineer George Mallory and his sidekick Andrew Irvine were engulfed in mist, a stone’s throw from the summit of the roof of the world. We never saw them again. Were they the first to reach the peak of the highest mountain on the planet? No one knows. But mountaineering’s biggest mystery may have found some new answers. This Friday, October 11, National Geographic announced that one of its teams had found the remains of Andrew Irvine in September: a foot in a boot and a tag bearing the mountaineer’s name.

For 100 years, the body of this Oxford student, with no real mountain experience, remained untraceable. The last expedition, in 2019, returned empty-handed. The remains of the legend George Mallory were found on May 1, 1999, perched at an altitude of 8,230 meters. She was also identified by a tag. The cracked leather boot and the studded sole found by the National Geographic team left them with little doubt: this equipment from another time could well have belonged to «Sandy» Irvine, as he was nicknamed.

Relief for family, hint for mountaineers

This discovery will allow Irvine’s loved ones to finally mourn, hopes photographer and director Jimmy Chin, who was part of the expedition. “When a person disappears in the mountains and there is no proof of what happened to them, it is very difficult for the family”he explains. Relatives of Irvine have also announced that they are ready to provide samples of their DNA to definitively confirm the identity of this booted foot, reports National Geographic. The rest of the body could, however, have been swept away by avalanches or trapped forever in a glacier.

Also readThe disappearance of George Mallory at the summit of Everest, the greatest mystery in mountaineering

In addition to reassuring the family, the discovery of these remains could also constitute “an important clue to the climbing community as to what happened”adds Chin. Because it could lead to that of the famous Kodak Vest Pocket camera that the two men had taken with them. The American company certified that the film was capable of resisting frost for several decades. Several expeditions have been launched in recent years to find the evidence. With the partial location of the body, a next attempt may be the right one.

Getting your hands on this precious device would undoubtedly remove all suspicion. And establish that the summit of Everest was reached in 1924 by Mallory and Irvine, and not in 1953 by Hillary and Norgay? The reality on the ground does not support this hypothesis. It seems that the two men simply did not have the appropriate equipment to pass the terrible second jump. But while we wait for the evidence, the mystery remains. And promotes the legend.