Spencer Matthews shared an emotional photo of a memorial to his late brother Michael on Mount Everest covered in prayer shawls by strangers.
Michael Matthews died in 1999 at the age of 22 while climbing the highest mountain on earth, having become the youngest Brit to ever climb the summit.
Spencer, 34, has been tracking his older brother’s exact steps on a mission to find his body for his Disney+ movie Finding Michael.
The former Made In Chelsea star has now revealed the family have built a cairn. [a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose]Dedicated to Michael when his body could not be found on the Thukla Pass in Chukla Lare.
The pass houses over 100 memorials to those who lost their lives in the mountains.
Tribute: Spencer Matthews shared an emotional image of the memorial covered in prayer shawls (left, as it looked when erected in 1999) with his late brother Michael.
Adventurer: Michael sadly died in 1999 at the age of 22 while climbing Mount Everest
Spencer shared a remarkable photo on Instagram showing the memorial when it was first erected in 1999 – and as it looks today, with dozens of prayer shawls left there by strangers.
Wearing a baby blue fleece, hat and gloves to protect himself from the elements, the reality star stood beside the memorial in awe of the many who had so kindly left a tribute to his brother.
Alongside the post, he wrote: “On the way to Everest, one arrives at the Thukla Pass in Chukla Lare, where there is a collection of stupas (piles of stones) commemorating some of those who were looted from the mountain.
“Shortly after Michael died and in the absence of a body, we had one built for him to be remembered in this beautiful way.
“Last year I visited Mike’s and found it completely covered in prayer towels.
“Wipe what it looked like in 1999.”
Michael’s body was never recovered and his family was never able to fully understand what happened to him.
Finding Michael, streaming now on Disney+, follows Spencer’s emotional search for his late brother’s body with adventurer Bear Grylls and record-breaking mountaineer Nirmal ‘Nims’ Purja.
During the film, Spencer, who was just 10 when his brother died, embarked on a “heartbreaking” mission to climb Everest to find his brother’s body and to retrace the “exact steps” his brother took had when he died.
Brothers: The TV personality was 10 years old when Michael (to the left of sibling James) tragically died
Finding Michael: Spencer decides to go in search of his deceased brother’s body by retracing his steps
Tragically, Michael is said to have gotten into trouble after he began making his way south through the “death zone” on May 13, 1999
Speaking on ‘The One Show’, Spencer said: “When Michael went missing it was too late by the time some people realized he was missing. Nobody really survives the night. A few cases maybe.”
Michael is said to have gotten into trouble after he began making his way south through the “death zone” on May 13, 1999, after spending about 20 minutes at the summit.
He was also the brother of Pippa Middleton’s husband, the racing driver turned hedge fund manager James Matthews, 47.
The experienced mountaineer, who had previously scaled Aconcagua, the Pyrenees and the Swiss Alps, died as the 162nd person on Everest.
Spencer went on to describe how he made the “difficult decision” to take on the mission himself.
“In 2017 the family was sent a photo of a body on the mountain and they claimed it could be Michael. In fact, it looked like it could be with similar peak suits. It’s really the first time I thought even physical recovery was possible.
‘ My head kept ticking, ‘What if it’s him?’. I certainly grew up feeling like he was up there and died and was left there. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a dead body to mourn for my family?’
“We scraped together all the information we had. I hadn’t seen some of the footage of Michael on the mountain before,” he said, becoming more and more emotional as the interview progressed.
“It was the first time I saw him on camera because we didn’t do home videos or anything like that when we were kids.
“Retracing his steps and understanding his last days a little bit better was quite cathartic for me…”
Finding Michael is now streaming on Disney+.