Partial remains of Mt Everest climber who disappeared 100 yrs ago believed to be found: Report

“I lifted up the sock, and there’s a red label that has ‘A. C. IRVINE’ stitched into it,” the climber and film director Jimmy Chin said, according to an exclusive National Geographic report. “We were all literally running in circles dropping f-bombs,” he added.

Over the years, many have searched for Irvine’s body, largely because the 22-year-old climber was believed to be carrying a camera with undeveloped film that might include a photograph of him and Mallory at the summit.

The family has now provided a DNA sample to confirm the foot’s identity as Irvine’s, but the filmmaking team is confident it belongs to the mountaineer, according to the National Geographic report.

The team made their discovery while descending the Central Rongbuk Glacier near Everest’s north face in September. Along the way, they found an oxygen bottle dated 1933, from an expedition that had previously found an item belonging to Irvine.

According to the report, the team, energised by this potential clue, spent several days searching the glacier, ultimately spotting the boot emerging from the melting ice.

After discovering the boot, one of director Chin’s first calls was to Irvine’s great-niece, Julie Summers, 64, who authored a biography of Irvine in 2001 and has “long championed his contributions to mountaineering.”

“It’s an object that belonged to him and has a bit of him in it,” Summers said of the boot, adding, “It tells the whole story about what probably happened.”

In her book about her great-uncle, Julie Summers describes Irvine as “a beautiful young man who died in the flush of youth.”

At the age of 22, Irvine was the youngest member of the 1924 expedition, which followed two earlier British climbs: one in 1921 to scout potential routes and another in 1922, marking the first serious attempt to summit Everest.