A MOUNTAINEERING expedition looks to have solved a 100-year-old mystery, after they discovered a booted foot on Everest wearing a sock with the name tag of missing climber Andy 'Sandy' Irvine.
The Oxford Boat Race rower, who spent holidays as a youngster in Ross-on-Wye with his aunt Edith, partnered George Mallory when they tried to summit the world's highest peak on June 8, 1924.
It is still unknown whether they made it to the top, but both disappeared on the mountain.
Mallory's body was found in 1999, but no trace of his 22-year-old companion had been recovered until a climbing team filming for National Geographic stumbled on the boot last month, revealed by melting ice on a glacier.
His family have offered to provide DNA to confirm the finding.
And great-niece Julie Summers, who wrote Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine about her relative, said she was "moved to tears" when told by expedition leader Jimmy Chin about the discovery, which included the name tag AC Irvine.
"It was and will remain an extraordinary and poignant moment.”
The discovery was made when the team descended the Central Rongbuk Glacier by the north face of Everest.
Chin, the maker of Oscar-winning climbing documentary Free Solo, said: "“I lifted up the sock and there’s a red label that has ‘AC Irvine’ stitched into it. We were all literally running in circles.
“Sometimes in life the greatest discoveries occur when you aren’t even looking.
"This was a monumental and emotional moment for us and our entire team on the ground, and we just hope this can finally bring peace of mind to his relatives and the climbing world at large.”
The mystery of whether Mallory and Irvine made it to the top may never be known, although the duo were reportedly carrying cameras with Kodak film that could have survived, but which have never been found.
The pair were last seen by fellow climber Noel Odell thousands of feet below, who watched two black dots moving across the ridge before cloud covered them.
When it lifted 15 minutes later there was no sign.