Everest Climber's Remains Believed Found after 100 Years

(FILES) This photograph taken on May 2, 2021 shows a helicopter flying over the Khumbu glacier in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, some 140kms northeast of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
(FILES) This photograph taken on May 2, 2021 shows a helicopter flying over the Khumbu glacier in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, some 140kms northeast of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
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Everest Climber's Remains Believed Found after 100 Years

(FILES) This photograph taken on May 2, 2021 shows a helicopter flying over the Khumbu glacier in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, some 140kms northeast of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
(FILES) This photograph taken on May 2, 2021 shows a helicopter flying over the Khumbu glacier in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, some 140kms northeast of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)

A documentary team discovered human remains on Mount Everest apparently belonging to a man who went missing while trying to summit the peak 100 years ago, National Geographic magazine reported Friday.

Climate change is thinning snow and ice around the Himalayas, increasingly exposing the bodies of mountaineers who died chasing their dream of scaling the world's highest mountain, AFP reported.

Briton Andrew Irvine went missing in 1924 alongside climbing partner George Mallory as the pair attempted to be the first to reach Everest's summit, 8,848 meters above sea level.

Mallory's body was found in 1999 but clues about Irvine's fate were elusive until a National Geographic team discovered a boot, still clothing the remains of a foot, on the peak's Central Rongbuk Glacier.

On closer inspection, they found a sock with "a red label that has A.C. IRVINE stitched into it", the magazine reported.

The discovery could give further clues as to the location of the team's personal effects and may help resolve one of mountaineering's most enduring mysteries: whether Irvine and Mallory ever managed to reach the summit.

That could confirm Irvine and Mallory as the first to successfully scale the peak, nearly three decades before the first currently recognised summit in 1953 by climbers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

"It tells the whole story about what probably happened," Irvine's great-niece Julie Summers told National Geographic.

Members of the Irvine family reportedly offered to share DNA samples to confirm the identity of the remains.

Irvine was 22 when he went missing.

He, along with Mallory, was last spotted by one of the members of their expedition on the afternoon of June 8, 1924, after beginning their final ascent to the summit that morning.

Irvine is believed to have been carrying a vest camera -- the discovery of which could rewrite mountaineering history.

Photographer and director Jimmy Chin, who was part of the National Geographic team, believes the discovery "certainly reduces the search area" for the elusive camera.

More than 300 people have perished on the mountain since expeditions started in the 1920s.

Some are hidden by snow or swallowed down deep crevasses.

Others, still in their colorful climbing gear, have become landmarks en route to the summit and bestowed with gallows humor nicknames, including "Green Boots" and "Sleeping Beauty.”



South Korean President Takes up Golf Again to Forge a Bond with Trump

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives for a news conference at the Presidential Office in Seoul, South Korea, 07 November 2024. (EPA)
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives for a news conference at the Presidential Office in Seoul, South Korea, 07 November 2024. (EPA)
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South Korean President Takes up Golf Again to Forge a Bond with Trump

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives for a news conference at the Presidential Office in Seoul, South Korea, 07 November 2024. (EPA)
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives for a news conference at the Presidential Office in Seoul, South Korea, 07 November 2024. (EPA)

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has dusted off his golf clubs in an attempt to forge a bond with President-elect Donald Trump, an avid lover of the game.

The presidential office said Tuesday that Yoon began practicing the game for the first time in eight years in preparation for a possible round of golf with Trump.

Since his election, Trump’s "America first" approach has raised concerns it could negatively affect the US defense commitment to South Korea and hurt the trade interests of the Northeast Asian country in various ways, including increased tariffs.

Some experts say it’s important to build a close personal friendship with Trump during the transition period before he formally takes office in January.

"Much could depend on whether Yoon is able to strike up positive chemistry with Trump immediately during the transition and foster a close personal friendship to convince him to want to support and advance Seoul’s interests," said Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at the Center for a New American Security in Washington.

Yoon and Trump discussed strengthening bilateral cooperation and agreed to hold an in-person meeting soon during a phone call on Thursday. The South Korean president told reporters later that while things couldn't remain the same as under the Biden administration, "we have been preparing to hedge these risks for a long time."

And apparently, a game of golf may be what's needed.

Local media said Yoon went to a Seoul golf course on Saturday, but the presidential office said it couldn't confirm the reports.

A senior presidential official, speaking on condition of anonymity in a background briefing, said that while he didn’t know how hard Yoon practiced golf, training was necessary as "our president also has to hit a ball properly to get conversations going on" with Trump, who has "outstanding" golf skills.

Yoon isn’t the first world leader to try to use golf to develop relations with Trump.

When he was in office, Japan’s assassinated prime minister, Shinzo Abe, struck up a personal friendship with then-President Trump, on the greens of golf clubs both in Japan and the US. In 2017, Abe said that a round of golf with Trump was a good chance to relax and discuss difficult issues.