The Boot

The John Huston character, Noah Cross in the movie Chinatown, describes to Jack Nicholson's Jake Gaddis how old and durable he is: Politicians, public buildings and whores all gain respectability if they last long enough.

The same might be said for a climber's boot and sock from 1924 just found on Mount Everest with the climber's name still visible inside, stenciled on the sock, A. C. Irvine.

A. C. Irvine was Andrew Comyn Irvine, 22, who was part of an ascent of the mountain with George Mallory. The two climbers did not return from the climb, and the find creates the possibility that they were the first to reach the top ahead of Sir Edmund Hillary. 

A. C. Irvine

In 1924 they disappeared, and the mystery of whether they ever reached the top has remained. George Mallory's remains were found in 1999. Mr. Irvine's remains were never found, but there is the belief that inside the boot human remains will be found.

The Mallory-Irvine pair were reported to have gotten within 800 feet of the top when they disappeared. Hillary made the first credited complete ascent in 1953 with Tenzig Norgay.

It was a National Geographic documentary team that made the boot and sock discovery, quite by accident because they themselves were a little bit off the course they wanted. In addition, they found an oxygen tank with the year 1933 from a failed British expedition that was following the course set out by Mallory and Irvine.

1924 Mallory-Irvine Base Camp

Jimmy Chin was part of the National Geographic documentary film crew, a name familiar to those who saw Free Solo, the award-winning documentary that chronicled Alex Honnold's free climb of Yosemite's El Capitan in 2017.

Think of the bragging rights a boot company (if still in business) can make about making a climbing boot that was found intact on Everest from 100 years ago.

Nima Rinji Sherpa

Mountains and exploration, space, and oceans will always draw people to try and conquer them. In the NYT edition of October 12, 2024 there is a story of an 18-year-old sherpa guide who has become the youngest to reach the summit of the world's 14 highest peaks, the 8,000+ meter ones.

Sherpa is a noun and an occupation that describes the Tibetan guides who accompany all the adventurers who pay big bucks to form expeditions to climb the world's highest peaks. 

Sherpa is also the universal last name of this coterie of Tibetans who truly do the heavy lifting in getting the customers to their desired summits. Nima Rinji Sherpa is just another in a long line of Sherpas who are part of the mountaineering industry. His father Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, at 19, was the youngest to ascend Everest without aid of supplemental oxygen. Nima has now joined the family guide business.

I wonder who makes his boots.

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