Could global warming solve Everest's oldest mystery?
As snow and ice recedes to uncover a grim harvest on the slopes of Everest, could the world's highest mountain be about to reveal the answer to one of its most enduring secrets?
Almost 300 climbers have died trying to climb the mountain and now, due to rising temperatures attributed to global warming, melting glaciers are exposing the bodies of victims who were previously entombed in ice.
And it raises the possibility that one of the oldest mysteries of the mountain might be solved – and potentially rewrite history.
In June 1924 former Shrewsbury School pupil Andrew "Sandy" Irvine died at the age of 22 when taking part in explorer George Mallory’s third and final attempt to become the first person to reach the mountain’s summit.
Irvine and Mallory disappeared somewhere high on the mountain’s northeast ridge, having been sighted only a few hundred metres from the summit.
It provoked decades of speculation over whether they had conquered the mountain a full 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing.
Mallory’s frozen body was discovered in 1999, but Irvine’s remains have never been found, despite a mission in 2010 by an Australian adventurer to try to find him. However an ice axe believed to be his was found in 1933.
Irvine was known to have been carrying a Kodak camera – thought to have been on a cord around his neck – which could yield proof that the pair made it to the 29,035ft summit.
Photographic experts say, preserved by the freezing conditions, the film could be successfully developed.
If it were to show the pair celebrating on the summit, they would take their place in history as the first conquerers of Everest, although opinions in the mountaineering community are divided on whether they would have been able to overcome the technical challenges of the last part of the ascent.
Birkenhead-born Irvine was a pupil at Shrewsbury School from 1916 to 1921. He was said to be a keen sportsman who particularly excelled at rowing and athletics. There are various archives at the school connected with him.
Most of the bodies of those who have died on Everest remain on the mountain because removing them is dangerous, difficult, and expensive.
