LONDON (AP) — Climbers believe they have found the partial remains of a British mountaineer who might — or might not — have been one of the first two people to climb Mount Everest, a century after their attempt on the world's highest peak, according to an expedition led by National Geographic.
Ahead of the release of a documentary film, the television channel said Friday that the expedition found a foot encased in a sock embroidered with “AC Irvine" and a boot that could be that of Andrew “Sandy” Irvine, who disappeared at the age of 22 along with his co-climber, the legendary George Mallory, near Everest's peak on June 8, 1924.
The pair, who were seeking to become the first people to conquer Everest, were last seen around 800 feet (245 meters) from the summit. Their fate has been debated by climbers and historians alike, with some postulating that they had stood atop of the world before disappearing on the way down.
In his final letter to his wife, Ruth, before he vanished on Mount Everest a century ago, the 37-year-old Mallory, who once famously said he wanted to conquer Everest “because it’s there," tried to ease her worries even as he said his chances of reaching the world’s highest peak were “50 to 1 against us.”
Mallory's body was found in 1999 but there was no evidence that could point to the two having reached Everest's summit at 29,032 feet (8,849 meters).
There is still no such evidence, though the apparent discovery of Irvine's remains could narrow the search for a Kodak Vest Pocket camera lent to the climbers by expedition member Howard Somervell. For mountaineers, it's the equivalent of the Holy Grail — the possibility of photographic proof that the two did reach the summit, almost three decades before New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay got there on May, 29, 1953.
The sock and boot were found at a lower altitude than Mallory’s remains, on the Central Rongbuk Glacier below the North Face of Mount Everest.
“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," said climb team member and National Geographic explorer Jimmy Chin.
Chin did not say exactly where the remains were found because he wants to discourage trophy hunters. But he’s confident that other items — and maybe even the camera — are nearby.
“It certainly reduces the search area," he told National Geographic.
The Irvine family has volunteered to compare DNA test results with the remains to confirm his identity.
His great-niece and biographer, Julie Summers, said she reacted emotionally when she found out about the discovery.
“I have lived with this story since I was a 7-year-old when my father told us about the mystery of Uncle Sandy on Everest,” she said. “When Jimmy told me that he saw the name AC Irvine on the label on the sock inside the boot, I found myself moved to tears. It was and will remain an extraordinary and poignant moment.”
The find, made by Chin along with climbers and filmmakers Erich Roepke and Mark Fisher, was reported to the London-based Royal Geographical Society, which jointly organized Mallory and Irvine’s expedition along with the Alpine Club.
“As joint organizer of the 1924 Everest expedition, the society deeply appreciates the respect Jimmy Chin’s team has shown Sandy Irvine’s remains and their sensitivity toward Sandy’s family members and others connected to that expedition," said Joe Smith, director of the society.
The partial remains are now in the possession of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association, which is responsible for climbing permits on Everest’s northern side.
In this photo provided by National Geographic on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, a view of a sock embroidered with "A.C. Irvine", along with a boot, discovered on the Central Rongbuk Glacier below the North Face of Mount Everest by a team led by Jimmy Chin. (Jimmy Chin/National Geographic via AP)
In this photo provided by National Geographic on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, a sock embroidered with "A.C. Irvine", along with a boot, discovered on the Central Rongbuk Glacier below the North Face of Mount Everest by a team led by Jimmy Chin. (Jimmy Chin/National Geographic via AP)
In this photo provided by National Geographic on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, a view of a sock embroidered with "A.C. Irvine", along with a boot, discovered on the Central Rongbuk Glacier below the North Face of Mount Everest by a team led by Jimmy Chin. (Jimmy Chin/National Geographic via AP)
BEIRUT (AP) — Two Lebanese soldiers were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli airstrike that hit a building near a Lebanese Army checkpoint in Kafra, Bint Jbeil province, the Lebanese Army said Friday.
Since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon, Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have clashed along the border while the Lebanese army has largely stood on the sidelines.
As Israeli troops made their first forays across the border and Hezbollah responded with rocket fire, Lebanese soldiers withdrew from observation posts along the frontier and repositioned about 5 km back.
On Oct. 3, a Lebanese soldier was killed and another injured in an Israeli strike in Taybeh during rescue operations. On Sept. 30, another Lebanese soldier was killed by an Israeli drone targeting a Lebanese Army checkpoint in Wazzani.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
BEIRUT (AP) —
The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon says new explosions hit its headquarters on Friday morning, injuring two peacekeepers, a day after Israeli forces struck the same position.
The force, known as UNIFIL, said the explosions went off close to an observation tower at its headquarters in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura. One of the injured peacekeepers was taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Tyre, while the other was treated at the site. It did not specify the cause of the blasts.
It also said an Israeli army bulldozer hit the perimeter of another of its positions in southern Lebanon while Israeli tanks moved nearby. Additional peacekeepers were sent to reinforce the position, it said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The developments came a day after UNIFIL said an Israeli tank directly fired on an observation tower at its headquarters, injuring two Indonesian peacekeepers, and that soldiers attacked a bunker near where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. The attacks drew international condemnations.
Israel is escalating its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border, after a year of exchanges of fire between the two rivals.
In central Beirut, rescue workers were searching through the rubble of a collapsed building Friday, hours after two Israeli strikes hit the Lebanese capital, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens.
The air raid was the deadliest attack on central Beirut in over a year of war, hitting two residential buildings in neighborhoods that have swelled with displaced people fleeing Israeli bombardment elsewhere in the country.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television and Israeli media said the strikes aimed to kill Wafiq Safa, a top security official with the group. Al-Manar said Safa was not in either building at the time. The Israeli military had no comment on the reports.
Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire to more populated areas deeper inside Israel. While disrupting life for Israelis, most of Hezbollah’s barrages have not caused casualties. But early Friday, an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon killed a man from Thailand working on a farm in northern Israel.
In Beirut’s Burj Abi Haidar neighborhood, civil defense members and municipal workers dug through the pile of concrete and twisted metal from a three-story building knocked down by Thursday night’s strike.
In an adjacent building that was badly damaged, Ahmad al-Khatib stood in the apartment of his in-laws where he, his wife, Marwa Hamdan, and their 2 ½-year-old daughter, Ayla, suffered injuries. He had just picked up his wife from work and she was performing the evening Muslim prayers at home when the blast hit.
“The world suddenly turned upside down and darkness prevailed,” said the 42-year-old, tears running down his cheeks. He pulled his daughter out from under the debris of a wall that collapsed in a bedroom. Al-Khatib, who works for the postal service. said he found the force of the explosion had thrown his wife against a wall and a piece of metal had hit her in the head.
“I looked in her face and shouted, ‘Say something!’” he said, but she only responded with sounds of pain. His wife remains in the ICU at a Beirut hospital. His daughter suffered only minor injuries.
Mohammed Tarhani said he had moved in with his brother nearby in the neighborhood after fleeing around southern Lebanon to escape airstrikes the past weeks. His children were out on the veranda, and he was in the living room when the strike hit.
“We rushed out to look for the children,” he said. “Where is one supposed to go now?"
Civil defense official Walid Hashash said they don’t expect more bodies under the rubble as no people are missing. He added that once operations are over they will issue a final death toll.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in support of Hamas and the Palestinians, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation. Israel says its stepped-up campaign since late September aims to push Hezbollah away from the border to allow tens of thousands of its citizens evacuated from the area to return home.
More than 2,100 Lebanese –- including Hezbollah fighters, civilians and medical personnel — have been killed the past year by Israeli strikes, more than two thirds of them in the past few weeks. Hezbollah attacks have killed 29 civilians as well as 39 Israeli soldiers in northern Israel since October 2023 and in southern Lebanon since Israel launched its ground invasion on Sept. 30. So far, Israeli troops have been operating in a narrow strip of a few kilometers (miles) along the border.
The war threatens to spiral even further, with Israel aiming to strike a crippling blow to its longtime adversary Hezbollah. Netanyahu this week warned Lebanese they would suffer the same destruction that Israel’s campaign against Hamas has inflicted in Gaza unless they take action against Hezbollah.
Israel has also vowed to strike back against the Lebanese group’s supporter, Iran, after it launched some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel last week. Iran’s barrage was in retaliation for previous Israeli strikes that killed Hamas’ leader in Tehran and senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard figures in Lebanon.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday reiterated U.S. support for Israel’s escalated campaign against Hezbollah. He said Israel had a “clear and very legitimate” interest to try to ensure the return of tens of thousands of its citizens who were evacuated from their homes near the border because of Hezbollah fire since last October.
He told a news conference after attending an annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos that the U.S. is “extremely focused” on reaching a diplomatic solution to the war.
UNIFIL said it was rearranging some of its personnel after Thursday's hits on its positions.
The Israeli military acknowledged opening fire at a U.N. base in southern Lebanon on Thursday and said it had ordered the peacekeepers to “remain in protected spaces.”
Afterward, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said 300 peacekeepers in frontline positions on southern Lebanon’s border have been temporarily moved to larger bases. Plans to move another 200 will depend on security conditions as the conflict escalates. Jean-Pierre Lacroix told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that peacekeepers with UNIFIL are staying in their positions, but because of air and ground attacks they cannot conduct patrols.
UNIFIL, which has more than 10,000 peacekeepers from dozens of countries, was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The United Nations expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to patrol a buffer zone set up along the border.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of establishing militant infrastructure along the border in violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war.
Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
A woman passes in front of destroyed cars at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A Lebanese woman passes next of destroyed cars at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Lebanese women pass destroyed buildings at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Rescue workers search for victims at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Rescue workers search for victims at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Rescue workers search for victims at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A resident of a building damaged in an Israeli airstrike returns to collect her family's belongings at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A resident of a building damaged in an Israeli airstrike returns to collect his family's belongings at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Residents react in front of their destroyed apartment at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Women react in front of their destroyed apartment at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Rescue workers search for victims at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
