A team of National Geographic mountaineers has uncovered what is believed to be the partial remains of Andrew "Sandy" Irvine, a British climber who disappeared during a 1924 expedition to summit Mount Everest.

On Friday, National Geographic reported that a sponsored team of mountaineers, led by photographer and filmmaker Jimmy Chin, last month spotted a gnarled-looking boot believed to belong to Irvine sticking out of a chunk of ice.

"I lifted up the sock," Chin said, describing the moment of the discovery, "and there's a red label that has 'A.C. IRVINE' stitched into it."

Irvine, a 22-year-old Oxford student in June 1924, vanished alongside his climbing partner, George Mallory, during their attempt to conquer the world's tallest peak. Had they been successful, they would have been the first to reach Everest's summit; but the pair disappeared, leaving their fate shrouded in mystery for nearly a century.

The climbing team's discovery was placed in a cooler and handed over to the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association, but not before securing a DNA sample to provide to the British Consulate for identification.

"But I mean, dude ... there's a label on it," Chin added.

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