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Body of missing climber discovered after 21 years
On August 15th two hikers making their way through the Columbia Icefields of Canada discovered the body of American William Holland, who had been missing for more than 21 years. The 38-year old Holland had traveled to Canada back in April of 1989 to take on a challenging climbing route known as "Slipstream." That route goes up a frozen waterfall on the 11,338-foot tall Snow Dome. Apparently, Holland slipped while making that climb, and fell more than 1000 feet to his death.All previous attempts to discover what happened to the Maine native proved fruitless, as ice covered his remains, keeping him hidden until now. But with glaciers melting all over the globe, it seems that they have retreated enough in the Columbia Icefields to reveal Holland's body at last.
According to a rescue specialist who helped with the recovery, the body was fully exposed and didn't even need to be chipped from the ice. It was also said to be fairly well preserved and in an almost mummified state. Holland's gear and clothing were also in nearly perfect condition as well thank to him being encased in ice for 21 years. He was still wearing his spiked boots and had a loop of climbing rope slung over his shoulder.
After 21 years of not knowing what happened to Holland, the discovery brings a measure of closure to his family.
[Photo credit: Qyd via WikiMedia]
Filed under: Climbing, Hiking, North America, Canada, United States, News
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Garry Sep 5th 2010 5:54PM
"But with glaciers melting all over the globe, it seems that they have retreated enough in the Columbia Icefields to reveal Holland's body at last. "
Gadling really needs to be a bit more careful with these bogus global warming attributions, I've noticed several of them over the last few months.
I checked all of the local Alberta news accounts and not one of them attributes this discovery to "glaciers melting [and] retreating."
In fact, in the local Edmonton Journal, Parks Canada a public safety specialist Steve Blake "said Holland's remains likely spent the last 21 years buried under mounds of snow or hidden inside a crevasse, waiting to be freed by warmer weather." The report also notes that hikers "found his body lying on top of the ice, apparently carried down the mountainside by melting snow."
Snow. Melting snow. Summer.
The body was found on August 15, around the height of summer in the Canadian Rockies.
Please refrain from the unnecessary global warming attributions and asides in future Gadling reports. Especially when they are pure editorial conjecture and not actually supported by the facts and common sense.
Jim Sep 6th 2010 11:10AM
Garry
There was no need to mention glacial melting because everybody already knows it is happening. As a climber who has made 7 trips to the Canadian Rockies, I can assure you these glaciers are shrinking at an alarming rate. The data is extremely clear:
In the Canadian Rockies, the Athabasca Glacier, one of the outlet glaciers of the 325 km² Columbia Icefield, has retreated 1500 m since the late 19th century. This retreat has become more rapid after 1980, following a period of slow retreat from 1950-1980. The Peyto Glacier, covering an area of about 12 km², retreated rapidly during the first half of the 20th century, stabilized by 1966 and resumed shrinking in 1976. [13] Illecillewaet Glacier in British Columbia's Glacier National Park (Canada) has retreated 2000 m since first photographed in 1887 below. Bugaboo Glacier glacier has retreated 420 m since 1972. On the Garbaldi Icefield of the Coast Range of British Columbia all nine glacier examined by have retreated significantly since 1976. Helm Glacier is one of these it has lost about 25 m of water equivalent, about 28 m of ice thickness lost. That is more than 30% of the glacier lost in just 25 years. The glacier had an area of 4.3 square kilometers in 1928. Today the area has declined by 78% to 0.92 square kilometers.
http://www.nichols.edu/departments/glacier/glacier_retreat.htm
Also pretty sleazy to-purpose this blog post on your own travel web site:
http://www.gadling.com/2010/09/05/body-of-missing-climber-discovere-after-21-years/