Man, 86, reunited with backpack 60 years after abandoning it during hiking accident
By Sophie Tanno, CNN
(CNN) — An 86-year-old Austrian man has been reunited with climbing equipment he was forced to abandon in a glacier crevasse more than six decades ago, after melting ice brought the long-lost belongings back to the surface.
A hiker discovered the backpack on the Sulztalferner glacier in Austria’s western Tyrol region last month, at nearly 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) above sea level, according to Austrian police.
Inside was a collection of items that had been preserved in the ice for decades, including an ice axe, camera, whistle and weathered document folder.
Police officers investigated the discovery to see if the rucksack was evidence of a long-ago mountaineering accident. They were able to make out the owner’s name among the documents found inside, leading to his identification.
Investigators learned that the man had lost the equipment during a climbing trip across the glacier in August 1963. He had fallen into a crevasse while roped together with several companions, police said. The others managed to pull him to safety, but he discarded his backpack in an effort to reduce his weight.
Sixty-three years later, the lost equipment was finally returned. The man, who has not been publicly named, was unable to collect the belongings himself because of ill health, police said, and the items were instead returned to him through his son.
The man’s son expressed his gratitude at the backpack’s return, according to a statement from Tirol police.
It comes as alpine and global glaciers are shrinking as the world heats up. By the middle of the century, the number of glaciers disappearing is set to peak at up to 4,000 a year, if humans keep pumping out climate pollution, according to a study published last year.
This is not the first time that objects – and even corpses – have been uncovered due to melting ice.
In 1991, hikers in the Italian Alps discovered the mummified body of Ötzi the Iceman, who died 5,300 years ago.
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