Austria: Climber’s Bag Found After 63 Years as Glacier Melts

TYROL — An Austrian climber has been reunited with a bag he left behind in a deep glacier crevasse 63 years ago, after melting ice finally brought it to the surface. The 86-year-old climber lost his bag in August 1963 while mountaineering on the Sulztal Ferner glacier in Austria’s Tyrol region, after falling into a crevasse. According to CNN, he survived the fall unharmed, but the bag stayed behind.
Sixty-three years later, a hiker discovered the long-lost gear at an altitude of nearly 3,000 meters on the glacier. Austrian police said the bag’s contents — an ice axe, a camera, a whistle, and documents — were remarkably well preserved. The documents provided the clue that allowed police to trace the bag back to its owner. At the time of the accident, the climber had been roped together with his companions crossing the glacier when he fell into the crevasse; his teammates pulled him to safety, but the bag was left behind to lighten the load and improve rescue chances.
Due to poor health, the climber was unable to collect the recovered items himself, so police handed them over to his son. Experts say the discovery is part of a growing trend linked to rising global temperatures, as rapidly melting glaciers around the Alps and elsewhere are exposing objects — and sometimes human remains — buried for decades or centuries. The most famous such find remains “Ötzi the Iceman,” whose naturally preserved body was discovered by hikers in the Alps in 1991 after being preserved in ice for roughly 5,300 years.