An 86-year-old Austrian man has reunited with the climbing equipment he was forced to abandon in a glacier crevasse more than 60 years ago. This is because the ice has melted and long-lost belongings have returned to the surface.
Austrian police said the backpack was found by a hiker last month on the Sulztalfellner glacier, about 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) above sea level in Austria’s West Tyrol region.
Inside was a collection of items that had been preserved in the ice for decades, including ice axes, cameras, whistles and weathered document folders.
Officers examined the find to see if the backpack was evidence of an old climbing accident. Documents found inside revealed the owner’s name, leading to his identification.
Investigators learned that the man had lost his equipment during a mountaineering trip over a glacier in August 1963. Police said the man fell into a crevasse while being tied up with a rope along with several of his companions. The others managed to pull him to safety, but he threw away his backpack to lose weight.
After 63 years, the lost equipment is finally back. Police said the man, whose name has not been released, was unable to retrieve his belongings himself because he was unwell, and instead they were returned to him through his son.
Tyrolean police said the man’s son expressed gratitude for returning the backpack.
It comes as alpine and global glaciers are shrinking as the world warms. If humans continue to emit climate pollution, up to 4,000 glaciers per year will disappear by the middle of this century, according to a study published last year.
This is not the first time that objects, even corpses, have been discovered after melting ice.
In 1991, hikers in the Italian Alps discovered the mummified remains of Ötzi, the iceman who died 5,300 years ago.
