Melting Austrian glacier yields backpack lost by German in 1963
An 86-year-old German mountaineer has recovered his vintage backpack after it emerged from a melting Tyrolean glacier 63 years after he dropped it into a crevasse, Austrian police said.
Lost to the ice
The equipment, which included an ice axe, a camera, and a whistle, was discovered at an altitude of 2,955 metres on the rapidly receding Sulztalferner glacier in western Austria.
Tyrolean state police confirmed they identified the owner through preserved personal documents found inside the bag. Because the elderly pensioner from near Regensburg, Bavaria, was unable to travel, his son collected the long-lost items on his behalf.
The veteran climber recalled that in August 1963, he had been traversing the Sulztalferner glacier alongside a group of mountaineering friends when he slipped into a deep fissure. He survived only because the party was roped together, allowing his companions to haul him back to safety while his pack was abandoned to the ice.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
