BarcelonaJust one hundred years ago, on June 8, 1924, the British climber Andrew Sandy Irvine and his companion George Mallory were facing the last leg of their climb to Mount Everest. They wanted to be the first people to climb the highest mountain on the planet. That day, however, would be the last time they would see them alive. Noel Odell, expedition colleague, was the last to certify them alive. Odell saw them clear the last technical step before reaching the summit and a moment later the fog lifted. Now, barely a century later, a National Geographic expedition has located what could be the remains of Sandy Irvine. The find occurred in the Rongbuk Central Glacier, located under the north face of the mountain.
Specifically, the National Geographic expedition ran into a thawing boot. Inside, he found two surprises. The first, the remains of a foot; and the second – which would reveal the extent of the find – the sock on which there was a tag that could clearly read “AC Irvine”. “It’s the first real evidence of where Sandy ended up,” says expedition director and photographer Jimmy Chin. Until now there had been many theories about where his body might be. It is believed that the thawing of the area would now make it possible to detect the boot.
Irvine and Mallory’s expedition has been the subject of speculation over the years: did they become the first to summit Everest or did they fail before reaching the top of the mountain? So far, the answer has been impossible to solve. Had he been able to reach the highest point in the world, he would have been 29 years ahead of the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and the Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who are now considered the first to have reached the summit.
Sandy was the only one of the two that nothing was known about, until now. Mallory was found in 1999 by climber Conrad Anker. The 25-year-old expedition was able to find various remains of Mallory that seemed to indicate that she had suffered a fall. The location of that find, further back from where Odell had last seen them, according to many could indicate that they were already back, which could mean they reached the top.
The big question could be solved soon. As he explains National Geographic, Irvine is believed to have carried a camera in his pocket. Now, if new remains can be located, doubts could disappear.
