In Austria, an 86-year-old mountaineer was returned a backpack found in a glacier
In Austria, an 86-year-old mountaineer was returned a backpack and equipment that had lain in a glacier crevasse for more than 60 years. The items were discovered on the Sulztalferner Glacier in the Tyrol region at an altitude of 2,955 meters above sea level.
Discovery on the glacier
A tourist found the backpack in July. Among the items were an ice axe, a camera, and a pipe dating from the 1950s or 1960s. Austrian police launched an investigation and identified the owner’s name using severely damaged documents found in the backpack.
As The Guardian reports, the man was crossing the glacier with friends in August 1963 when he fell into a crevasse. The members of the group were tied together with a rope, so his friends were able to pull him out. To reduce weight, the man took off his backpack and threw it into the crevasse.
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Return of the items
Police did not disclose the owner’s name. Due to his health condition, he was unable to collect the items in person, so they were returned to him through his son.
According to the publication, the accelerated retreat of European glaciers, which scientists primarily link to human-caused global warming, has in recent decades revealed objects, ancient ecosystems, and human remains. In 2015, barracks where Italian military personnel stayed during World War I were discovered on Mount Scorluzzo. In 1991, two German tourists found the mummified body of a hunter about 5,300 years old in the Ötztal Alps, known as Ötzi.
