First ascent relic

Historic discovery of a body on Mount Everest

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. Irvine's body was never found ...

(Bild: AP/Jimmy Chin/National Geographic via AP)

Andrew "Sandy" Comyn Irvine (†1924) was a British mountaineer who died while attempting the first ascent of Mount Everest. To this day, there is speculation as to whether he reached the summit before he died. Until now, his body was the only one never found on the mountain. 100 years later, the mystery surrounding his death may soon be solved ...

As has now become known, a mountain boot with a sock and the inscription A.C. Irvine was found in September 2024 during a National Geographic expedition on the Rongpu Glacier below the north face of Mount Everest.

To this day, there is 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. Both Brits had disappeared on Everest in 1924.

Pictures of the find:

As the magazine reported, the film crew found a worn climbing boot in September on the central Rongbuk Glacier on the Tibetan side of Everest, with a foot still inside under a sock.

(Bild: Jimmy Chin/National Geographic via AP)

The sock was embroidered with the name "A.C. Irvine".

(Bild: Jimmy Chin/National Geographic via AP)

(Bild: AP/Jimmy Chin/National Geographic via AP)

Director Jimmy Chin was quoted as saying that the team hoped the find would provide further clues to explain what really happened on Everest. "This is the first real evidence of where Sandy ended up." His body could be a few meters away.

Andrew Irvine (1902-1924) during his college years at Oxford.

(Bild: wikipedia.org (Gemeinfrei))

Members of the Irvine family had agreed to have DNA samples taken to make sure the body part belonged to Andrew, it said. "This is an object of his and there is something of his in it," said Irvine's great-niece Julie Summers.

Mallory's body found by search expedition in 1999
She suspects that the remains of both climbers were caught in avalanches and torn apart as a result of the glacier movements. Mallory's body was found by a search expedition in 1999, while Irvine's remained missing.

A man reads in the "Gorkha Patra" in 1999 about the discovery of the body of mountaineer George Mallory in the Himalayas.

(Bild: AFP)

When the body was found 25 years ago, it was hoped that Mallory's body would be found in a camera, but this was never found.

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who stood on the summit of the 8849-metre-high mountain 29 years later, are considered to be the first climbers.