A new discovery on Mount Everest is leading researchers to believe that Edmund Hillary was probably not the first person to scale the world's highest peak. A filmmaking team might have found 100-year-old partial remains of tragic climber Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine, National Geographic.revealed. Ahead of the release of a documentary film, the television channel said on Friday that the expedition found a foot encased in a sock embroidered with 'AC Irvine' and a boot that could be that of the British climber.
Irvine was 22 when he disappeared along with his co-climber George Mallory, near Everest's peak on June 8, 1924. The pair was attempting to become the first people to scale the peak. They were last seen around 245 metres (800 feet) from the summit.
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Now, some experts believe that Irvine and Mallory, who was 38 years old, might have reached the summit and then fallen down while their descend.
After Nat Geo's revelation, Irvine's family said that they are 'deeply moved'. The discovery is now in the possession of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association. The find has also been reported to the Royal Geographical Society, which organised Mallory and Irvine's original expedition.
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The two climbers' Vest Pocket Kodak camera has not been found yet. It might have photohraphs proving the men had reached the top of Everest.
Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first recorded climbers to reach the top of the mountain in their 1953 expedition.