Everest expedition ‘finds Mallory group’s sock’

An expedition to discover whether George Mallory and Andrew Irvine conquered Mount Everest before their deaths has found a sock and mitten thought to belong to the men, it emerged today.

The American party uncovered the new evidence at around 27,000 ft, possibly the highest camp established by the British mountaineers during their doomed expedition 77 years ago.

But team leader Eric Simonson, who found Mallory’s body in 1999, is still hunting for Irvine’s camera in the hope that it might finally solve the mystery of whether they became the first men to reach the summit.

The adventurers, wearing hobnail boots and heavy tweed clothing, disappeared on June 8 1924 and were last seen within 2,000ft of the world’s highest peak.

Mallory’s corpse was found with a broken leg, believed to have led to his death, but there was nothing to indicate how high he had previously climbed.

The sock and mitten, thought to be from Mallory and Irvine’s camp, were excavated by team member Andy Politz in a shallow gully near the crest of Everest’s North Ridge.

The location matched descriptions of the site from earlier British climbers, whose 1933 stop there was the last time it was known to have been visited.

The party also found oxygen bottles and other evidence of high camps used by Chinese climbers in 1960 and 1975, according to the expedition’s US website.

There were fears for the current party’s safety when a shift in the jet stream sent 100mph winds whipping across the upper North Face of the 29,035 ft mountain.

‘‘That’s a lousy place to be in that kind of weather,’’ said Simonson’s wife Erin, who is also the expedition’s Washington-based business manager.

Many believe Irvine’s body and camera might be near the 1975 Chinese camp, after one of the Chinese climbers spotted what he called ‘‘old English dead’’ nearby.

The primitive Kodak was carried on a string around his neck and could contain pictures that would prove whether they reached the peak.

Simonson and his colleagues are now continuing the search for other clues that might settle lingering questions about the 1924 climb.