The discovery of Irvine’s boot on Everest raises more questions than answers

Andrew Comyn ‘Sandy’ Irvine disappeared while attempting to climb Everest in June 1924 with his partner George Mallory. For a century, the 22-year-old British climber’s body lay undiscovered. But last month a startling discovery was made on the mountain: a preserved boot with a red label attached; the lettering inside read: ‘AC Irvine’.

The group of American filmmakers uncovered the boot on the Central Rongbuk Glacier, on the north face of Everest. The expedition was not there to hunt for clues on the ill-fated British 1924 Mount Everest expedition and the climbers instantly knew what they were looking at. ‘I lifted up the sock and saw a red label with ‘AC Irvine’ stitched into it,’ climber and filmmaker Jimmy Chin told National Geographic after the historic find. ‘We were all literally running in circles, dropping F-bombs.’

Could this discovery finally solve the mystery of whether Mallory and Irvine reached the summit on 8 June 1924, making them the first people to do so? ‘To be honest, it doesn’t give us many clues,’ says Jochen Hemmleb, an author and historian who has dedicated his life to studying the fate of the British duo.