The National Geographic team spent several days searching a melting glacier and uncovered a boot along with a severed foot, which appeared to have birds pecking at them. Prominent mountaineer Jimmy Chin suggested that the boot “probably melted out of the glacier just about a week before we found it.”

In September of this year, when the National Geographic documentary crew discovered a boot and sock on a melting glacier at Mount Everest, they immediately recognized it as a significant clue in a century-old mystery.

According to CNN, the wool sock bore the initials “A.C. Irvine,” indicating it likely belonged to British mountaineer Andrew “Sandy” Irvine. Irvine and his climbing partner, George Mallory, disappeared in 1924 during what many consider one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in mountaineering history. This discovery could potentially rewrite the narrative surrounding the first successful summit of Everest.

On June 8, 1924, the two climbers went missing just 800 feet from the summit of Mount Everest while attempting to complete the first recorded ascent. Whether they reached the top before perishing on the way down remains a question that still haunts historians and climbers alike.

While Mallory’s body was discovered in 1999, Irvine’s remains and the camera that might have recorded the ascent have yet to be found. Recently, the National Geographic team uncovered a foot alongside what is believed to be Irvine’s boot, and they are awaiting DNA confirmation to compare it with samples from Irvine’s family.

Just days before finding the boot, the team had already located an oxygen cylinder left by a 1933 climbing expedition that attempted to reach Everest’s summit. Although that expedition ended unsuccessfully, they found one of Irvine’s ice axes on the mountain’s northeast ridge, leading them to speculate that they might be nearing his remains.

Driven by this hypothesis, they devoted several days to searching the glacier, eventually spotting birds pecking at the boot and the severed foot. Chin commented that the boot “probably came out of the glacier only about a week before our discovery.”

After securing the artifacts, the team transported them down the mountain and reported their findings to the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA), notifying Irvine’s relatives, including his grandniece, Julie Summers, who has written a book about her famous ancestor.

Summers shared with PA Media, “Ever since I was seven, when my father told me about the mystery of Uncle Sandy’s disappearance on Everest, this story has been part of my life. When Mallory’s body was found in 1999, the story became more real, and I often wondered if Sandy’s remains would be discovered next. Now, a quarter of a century later, I thought it was unlikely we’d find anything new.”

Learning about the boot’s existence brought her to tears.