Remains of Andrew Irvine, a British mountaineer who disappeared a century ago while trying to reach Mount Everest, have been discovered on the slopes of the world’s highest peak, it was announced Friday National Geographic. If this discovery is confirmed, it could further lift the veil which still covers one of the greatest mysteries in the history of modern mountaineering.
Andrew Irvine and his compatriot George Mallory were last seen on June 8, 1924, a few hundred meters from the summit of Everest, before disappearing. The body of the second was found in 1999 at an altitude of more than 8,300 m by an American expedition.
Last month, a new team financed by the American magazine National Geographic found under the north face of Everest, taken from the central Rongbuk glacier, a shoe containing the remains of a human foot. Inside, team members discovered a red sock with an “AC IRVINE” label sewn into it, the magazine reported.
Members of the British climber’s family have offered to share DNA samples to confirm the identity of remains found on Everest.
A triumph for Andrew Irvine?
The Roof of the World (8,848 m) was officially conquered for the first time on May 29, 1953 by the New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and the Nepalese sherpa Tensing Norkay.
But part of the mountain community remains convinced that they were beaten in 1924 by George Mallory, one of the most famous mountaineers of the interwar period, and Andrew Irvine, who died on their way down from the summit. According to them, the two men were equipped with one or more cameras which could contain evidence of their exploit.
As early as 1933, an expedition found an oxygen mask and an ice pick belonging to Andrew Irvine. But the search for a camera that belonged to the rope party was never successful.
Photographer and director Jimmy Chin, member of the team of National Geographic who discovered Andrew Irvine’s boot, hoped that it would “reduce the search area”.
More than 300 dead on the roof of the world
Since the first expeditions launched in the 1920s, more than 300 climbers have died attempting to scale Everest. The global warming which affects the Himalayan chain reveals each year to the mountaineers who follow one another on the slopes of Everest bodies previously trapped in the ice.
Some are given nicknames such as “Green Shoes” or “Sleeping Beauty” and their colorful equipment now serves as a landmark on the climb.
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