Sandy Irvine and George Mallory vanished during their attempt to summit Mount Everest in June 1924, and the mystery over whether or not they reached the peak endures to this day
Jimmy ChinSandy Irvine’s foot, boot, and sock were discovered on Mount Everest 100 years after he disappeared while attempting to summit the mountain.
On the snowy peaks of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth, the dark object in the snow stood out. It was not trash, a piece of equipment, or a protruding stone. It was a boot with a sock inside that clearly identified it as belonging to A.C. Irvine. In other words, it was the partial remains of Sandy Irvine, the 22-year-old climber who disappeared while attempting to summit Mount Everest in 1924.
Though the remains of Irvine’s partner, George Mallory, were discovered in 1999, the location of Irvine’s body has long eluded searchers. The discovery of his boot thus offers a hint at one of the biggest mysteries in the world of climbing: Did Mallory and Irvine reach the summit of Everest decades before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay?
‘Dropping F-Bombs’: The Discovery Of Sandy Irvine’s Boot
Jimmy ChinSandy Irvine’s boot was found almost by chance by a National Geographic film team.
The discovery of Sandy Irvine’s boot happened almost by chance. In September 2024, a National Geographic film crew was making a documentary on Mount Everest when they came across an oxygen tank from 1933. It belonged to climbers who had failed to reach the summit — but had stumbled upon Sandy Irvine’s ax during their attempt. The crew began to speculate that Irvine’s remains could possibly be nearby.
“If Sandy had fallen down the north face, his remains or his body could be somewhere near here,” the film crew’s photographer and director Jimmy Chin told National Geographic. “[The oxygen canister] probably fell down quite a bit farther than a body — more like a missile.”
After searching the area for a few days, one member of the crew spotted something in the snow. Upon investigating, they found that it was a boot with a sock and a foot still inside — and the sock clearly identified its owner.
“I lifted up the sock and there’s a red label that has A.C. IRVINE stitched into it,” Chin recalled. “We were all literally running in circles dropping F-bombs.”
A century after he disappeared while trying to summit Mount Everest, Andrew Comyn “Sandy” Irvine had been found. Experts say that his discovery might offer clues about whether or not Irvine and his climbing partner, George Mallory, actually made it to the summit.
Sandy Irvine And George Mallory’s Doomed 1924 Expedition On Mount Everest
More than 100 years before his foot was discovered in the snow, Sandy Irvine attempted to summit the tallest mountain on Earth alongside George Mallory. They were last seen on June 8, 1924, less than 1,000 feet from the peak of Mount Everest.
Public DomainSandy Irvine in the 1920s. He was just 22 years old during the expedition.
But the men never returned. And no one knows if they were successful. In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first recognized climbers to reach the top of Mount Everest.
In the decades since, however, the mountain has offered up some clues. In 1999, George Mallory’s body was discovered, one of more than 200 corpses that litter Everest’s landscape. His leg was broken, and rope marks on his body suggested he’d been tied to his partner — Irvine — when he suffered a fatal fall. Significantly, Mallory’s dark snow goggles were in his pocket, suggesting that the fall occurred during the evening, and the photo of his wife he’d planned to place on the summit was missing.
Public DomainGeorge Mallory as a young man.
However, it was Irvine who carried a camera during the expedition — which made the mystery of his body’s location all the more tantalizing. Could this camera hold the answers to a century-long mystery over whether or not Mallory and Irvine reached the summit before Hillary and Norgay?
Perhaps. For now, the camera is still missing. But the discovery of Irvine’s boot challenges theories that the camera was picked up by Chinese climbers long ago — and suggests that artifacts like it could be nearby.
According to Chin, the discovery of the boot “reduces the search area.” Who knows what answers Mount Everest might offer up next?
After reading about the discovery of Sandy Irvine’s boot, learn the stories of some of the most harrowing deaths that ever took place on Mount Everest. Or, go inside the incredible true story of Beck Weathers, the Mount Everest climber who was left for dead — twice — and yet managed to survive.
