Mount Everest

Camera team finds remains of dead climber

Mount Everest is a mountain in the Himalayas and the highest mountain on earth at over 8,848 meters.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Lakpa Sherpa)

There is still speculation as to whether the British climber Andrew Comyn "Sandy" Irvine made the first ascent of Mount Everest 100 years ago together with his then famous mountaineering colleague George Mallory. Now there is a new lead.

According to a report by "National Geographic", a documentary film team from the magazine has now possibly found Irvine's remains on the highest mountain on earth. Both Britons disappeared on Everest in 1924.

As the magazine reported, the film team found a worn climbing boot on the central Rongbuk Glacier on the Tibetan side of Everest in September, which still contained a foot under a sock. The sock was embroidered with the name "A.C. Irvine". Director Jimmy Chin was quoted as saying that the team hoped the find would provide further clues to explain what really happened on Everest at the time. "This is the first real evidence of where Sandy ended up." His body could lie a few meters away.

DNA samples to shed light
Members of the Irvine family have agreed to have DNA samples taken to ensure that the body part belongs to Andrew Irvine, it was said. "This is an object of his and there is something of his in it," said Irvine's great-niece Julie Summers, according to Chin. She suspects that the remains of both climbers were caught by avalanches and torn apart as a result of the glacier movements. Mallory's body was found by a search expedition in 1999, Irvine remained missing.

To this day, it is still not clear whether they made it to the summit. When the body was found 25 years ago, it was hoped that pictures from Mallory's camera would clarify the situation, but they were never found. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who stood on the summit of the 8,849-metre-high mountain almost 30 years later, are considered to be the first climbers.