Hiker receives lost backpack 63 years after he fell into Austrian glacier

An 86-year-old hiker has been reunited with his backpack more than 60 years after he was forced to abandon it during a mountaineering emergency in Austria’s Tyrol region. His long-lost belongings were preserved in glacial ice, but its melting led to their discovery last month when a hiker stumbled upon a backpack, an ice axe, a camera, and a pipe dating from the 1950s or 1960s, Austrian authorities said. 0:50 Place Glacier Lake bursts near Pemberton Story continues below advertisement The hiker found the items on the Sulztalferner glacier at an altitude of 9,700 ft last month, prompting a police investigation.“A barely legible name was eventually found in the badly weathered document folder. Further research led to the identification of the former owner. The now 86-year-old confirmed that the equipment was indeed his,” Tyrol state police said. Get daily National news Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you'll never miss the day's top stories. The owner left the items on the glacier on Aug. 4, 1963, when he and some friends went on a high-altitude hike in the Sulztalferner glacier area.During the crossing, he fell into a crevasse. Because the group was roped together, h...