Mountains often hide mysterious stories and incidents that seem to be from another world, and sometimes some stories emerge that feel hard to believe, like they belong to another century.In the mountains of western Austria, a backpack that vanished into a glacier crevasse in 1963 has just found its way back to the man who lost it, now 86 years old.While this might just sound like a fictional tale from an adventure story, it is actually real.The impact of increasing global warming is visible across the world through rising temperatures and melting glaciers.As glaciers across the Alps continue to retreat at an alarming pace, discoveries like this one are becoming a pattern directly associated with a warming planet.
Mountaineer reunites with belongings lost in melting glacier 63 years after his journey
It was August 1963 when a young German climber named Alfred Rothfischer, then just 23, was making his way across the Sulztalferner glacier in Austria’s Tyrol region with two climbing partners. Roped together for safety, the trio was crossing the ice when Rothfischer suddenly slipped and fell into a crevasse, dangling roughly 24 feet below the surface, according to a CNN report.His companions managed to pull him back up, and he survived the fall with only minor injuries. But to make the rescue easier, he let go of his backpack, something climbers often have to do in emergencies, sending it deep into the glacier, never expecting to see it again.
The backpack remained frozen in ice for 63 years
For 63 years, that backpack sat frozen and hidden. Then, last month, a hiker spotted it resting on the surface of the Sulztalferner glacier, at an altitude of nearly 3,000 metres, according to Austrian police. Inside were remarkably preserved items: an ice axe, a camera, a whistle, and a weathered document folder, with some of the gear appearing to date from the 1950s or 1960s, according to an AOL report.
In 1963, a German mountain climber lost his belongings after falling into a crevasse; today, melting Alpine glaciers reunite the 86-year-old man with his deteriorated documents, camera, and whistle (Photo via Tyrol State Police Directorate/ CNN)
When officers first received the backpack, they weren’t sure what they were dealing with. They thought that it could be linked to an old, unsolved mountaineering accident. That changed once they examined the documents tucked inside, which still bore the owner’s name despite remaining in ice for decades. Investigators traced the name back to Rothfischer, who is now 86 years old and has health issues that prevent him from travelling to collect his belongings himself.Police eventually connected with the family, and the recovered items were formally handed over to his son at a police station in Neustift. The son, moved by the unexpected return of his father’s old gear, expressed his gratitude for getting the belongings back, Tyrol police said.
Such incidents are happening increasingly
This isn’t an isolated case. Alpine glaciers have been losing ground rapidly for years now, and the Sulztalferner is no exception; it has retreated nearly 4,970 feet since 1923, with much of that loss increasing in just the last couple of years, according to estimates from the Austrian Alpine Club. As the ice melts gradually, it’s increasingly exposing things it once swallowed, from old equipment to, more soberingly, human remains.
