Topics: World News
For the last 71 years it has been believed that New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary, alongside his Nepalese-Indian sherpa Tenzing Norgay, were the first men to summit Mount Everest.
Back in 1953, the two made history after they did what no one had done before - reached the peak of the tallest mountain in the world, standing 29,032 feet high.
But 29 years prior, a British expedition saw 37-year-old mountaineer George Mallory and 22-year-old Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine leave camp on June 8, 1924.
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The pair never returned and there was no evidence to indicate that they reached the summit, although explorers believe they could have made it before dying on the descent.
To prove to people that they made it to the top of Mount Everest Irvine had planned to take a picture on a Kodak pocket camera, while Mallory intended to leave a picture of his wife Ruth at the top.
After they failed to make it back to camp it was understood by the climbing community that the pair must have fallen to their deaths.
Nine years passed without a sign until Irvine's ice pick was discovered by Hugh Ruttledge, a leader of another British expedition.
He wrote afterwards: "Firstly it seems probable that the axe marked the scene of a fatal accident.
"For reasons already given, neither climber would be likely to abandon it deliberately on the slabs … its presence there would seem to indicate that it was accidentally dropped when a slip occurred or that its owner put it down in order to have both hands free to hold the rope."
But it wasn't until 1999 that Mallory's body was discovered by climbers - the picture of his wife was nowhere to be seen, while his injuries showed signs of a fall just 2,263 feet from the top - suggesting they may have made it.
Now, exactly 100 years on from their disappearance, an expedition of climbers with a camera crew have made a mind-blowing discovery.
A sock, boot, and horrifically a foot - understood to be that of Irvine's due to his name being embroidered into the sock - has been found by Oscar-winning director Jimmy Chin - alongside a National Geographic documentary team.
Speaking about the discovery, Chin said: "I lifted up the sock, and there’s a red label that has A.C. IRVINE stitched into it."
The importance of the discovery was immediately apparent for Chin, whose Academy Award came in 2019 when Free Solo won Best Documentary Feature, as he explained that everyone was 'literally running in circles dropping F-bombs'.
He added: "It’s the first real evidence of where Sandy ended up."
Unfortunately Irvine's camera was nowhere to be seen so as it remains there is no way to prove he and Mallory summited Mount Everest first, but for now a DNA sample has been taken to confirm his identity.
