A mountaineer has been reunited with his long-lost backpack and climbing gear after the items emerged from a melting glacier in Austria more than six decades after he left them behind.
View of the Sulztalferner Glacier in the Subaier Alps of Austria/By: stockphoto52/iStock
The 86-year-old man lost the equipment in 1963 when he fell into a crevasse while crossing the Sulztalferner glacier in Tyrol with a group of friends.
A hiker discovered the backpack and several pieces of equipment, including an ice axe, camera and pipe, on the glacier in July. The items are believed to date from the 1950s or 1960s.
According to The Guardian, Austrian police were able to identify the owner through documents found inside the badly weathered backpack. They eventually tracked him down and returned the belongings to his family.
A climbing accident from 1963
The mountaineer had been travelling across the glacier with friends when he fell into a crevasse. The group was roped together, allowing his companions to pull him to safety.
To make himself lighter, he removed his backpack and threw it into the crevasse. He would not see it again for more than 60 years.
The man was reportedly too ill to travel to the glacier to collect his belongings, so his son received the equipment on his behalf.
The discovery offers a remarkable glimpse into the past, but it also highlights how rapidly Alpine glaciers are changing.
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Melting glaciers reveal hidden history
The retreat of glaciers across Europe has exposed everything from abandoned military sites and archaeological remains to the bodies of people who disappeared in the mountains.
During the First World War, soldiers fought in some of the highest and most inhospitable parts of the Alps. In 2015, a former barracks used by Italian troops during the so-called White War was uncovered on Mount Scorluzzo, while the remains of soldiers have also emerged from the retreating ice.
Perhaps the most famous discovery was made in 1991, when German hikers found the remarkably preserved body of a man who had died in the Ötztal Alps around 5,300 years ago.
Known as Ötzi the Iceman, the naturally mummified hunter was found near the modern border between Austria and Italy. His body, along with his clothing and possessions, has provided scientists with an extraordinary window into prehistoric Alpine life.
The return of a mountaineer’s backpack may be a much more recent story, but it is another reminder that retreating glaciers can reveal objects and stories that have remained hidden for generations.
Source: The Guardian
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