Many have wondered if his team succeeded in becoming the first people to summit Everest, 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the top.
Over the years, some have tried to search for Irvine’s body, external as he was said to have been carrying a camera with undeveloped film which could prove that he and his climbing partner George Mallory had succeeded.
British authorities are now verifying the identity of the foot using a DNA sample, according to a National Geographic report, external. The has asked the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for comment.
But the filmmaking team is fairly confident it belongs to Irvine, due to the sock found inside the boot being embroidered with the words “A.C. Irvine”.
“I mean, dude… there’s a label on it,” Chin was quoted as saying.
The discovery was made when the team descended the Central Rongbuk Glacier by the north face of Everest in September.
Along the way, they found an oxygen bottle marked with the date 1933. An Everest expedition that year had found an item belonging to Irvine.
Energised by this possible sign that Irvine’s body could be nearby, the team searched the glacier for several days, before one of them saw the boot emerging from melting ice.
It was a fortuitous spot – they estimated the ice had only melted a week before their discovery.
