Maine climber missing since 1989 found

[csprague]

I suppose "body of missing hiker recovered" is a more accurate term.

In 1989, Holland was on the Slipstream ice climb on Snow Dome Mountain when the cornice on which he was standing failed. Holland fell more than 1,000 vertical feet before landing in a crevasse...

...An avalanche obliterated the area and after two days the search for Holland was called off...

...Holland's body had traveled downhill with the glacier about a kilometer...

I'm sure it's good for his family to have closure.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Bod...sing-1989-discovered-in-Canadian-Rockies.html

 

[Chip]

Interesting. I wonder if any member here knew him. The other article I saw mentioned family, but not if he was married or had children.

Hikers found the body of William Holland still clad in his climbing gear, spiked boots and a rope slung over his shoulder, Postmedia News reported Saturday.

Doesn't seem possible, however the 5000 year old Alps guy also still had most of his gear with him.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/08/29/US-climbers-body-found-after-21-years/UPI-10781283061182/

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Interesting. I wonder if any member here knew him. The other article I saw mentioned family, but not if he was married or had children.

Bill was a fellow glacial geologist and friend, and was planning to lead me up the Black Dike ice route on Cannon cliff on his return from the Canadian Rockies that winter. I never did climb that route.

Married with two young children, I believe.


http://www.kjonline.com/news/Body-o...sing-1989-discovered-in-Canadian-Rockies.html

http://www.vancouversun.com/Glacier+gives+dead+Climber+found+after+years/3454610/story.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...National+(The+Globe+and+Mail+-+National+News)

 

[DougPaul]

Hikers found the body of William Holland still clad in his climbing gear, spiked boots and a rope slung over his shoulder, Postmedia News reported Saturday.

Doesn't seem possible, however the 5000 year old Alps guy also still had most of his gear with him.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/08/29/US-climbers-body-found-after-21-years/UPI-10781283061182/

Why not? He and his gear were packed in ice the entire time.

Finding well preserved animals as they melt out of a glacier is not uncommon.

Doug

 

[Chip]

Bill was a fellow glacial geologist and friend, and was planning to lead me up the Black Dike ice route on Cannon cliff on his return from the Canadian Rockies that winter. I never did climb that route.

Married with two young children, I believe.

Very sad. I figured someone here would know him.

Why not? He and his gear were packed in ice the entire time.

Finding well preserved animals as they melt out of a glacier is not uncommon.

Doug

Yeah, I know, it obviously happens often. Without getting too graphic, I'm just thinking about what 20 years in glacier, being transported a mile down the mountain might do and find it surprising that he still was in tact with gear. I believe most mammoths and such were frozen in place and not transported in a glacier. I'm not sure if Otzi was found where he died or if he emerged from a glacier somewhere else.

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Yeah, I know, it obviously happens often. Without getting too graphic, I'm just thinking about what 20 years in glacier, being transported a mile down the mountain might do and find it surprising that he still was in tact with gear. I believe most mammoths and such were frozen in place and not transported in a glacier. I'm not sure if Otzi was found where he died or if he emerged from a glacier somewhere else.

Otzi was buried by snow and ice in a rock crevice (as opposed to a glacier crevasse) on an arete (between two cirques) in the Tyrolean Alps, which helps to explain his fine preservation. Bill was carried about a kilometre from his bergshrund tomb in less than 21 years, which helps to explain his remains being more or less intact. Needless to say, with AGW, shrinking glaciers are revealing numerous remains of plants and animals, including humans, all over the globe, especially over the past couple of decades.

Here is a link to an abstract to a paper that a colleague is presenting in a special session that I am co-chairing at the GSA meeting in Denver this November (all plants, no animals).

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2010AM/finalprogram/abstract_181355.htm

 

[DougPaul]

Yeah, I know, it obviously happens often. Without getting too graphic, I'm just thinking about what 20 years in glacier, being transported a mile down the mountain might do and find it surprising that he still was in tact with gear. I believe most mammoths and such were frozen in place and not transported in a glacier. I'm not sure if Otzi was found where he died or if he emerged from a glacier somewhere else.

Ice flows through a glacier--it accumulates at the high end where snow fall is higher and temps are colder, flows downhill, and melts lower down. And, of course, it carries anything in it along for the ride.

One of my books contains a picture of a mummified mountain sheep, which had been extinct in the area for many years, as it emerged from glacial ice. It is in very good condition.

Condolences to Bill Holland's family and friends, of course, but this way they get his body back in fairly good condition if they don't mind the delay.

Doug

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Here is a more detailed report, which really hit me like a brick, as until now most of us thought that Bill died instantly in the fall, but apparently he did not. Bill's death has haunted me greatly all of these years, so I can only imagine how difficult it has been for his climbing partner Chris Dube, and even more so for Rick Costea, who was left at base camp with a dislocated shoulder by his partner and Chris after they stumbled down the long glacier route from the top of the Deltaform, where Rick thought that he heard Bill's screams for help through the night.

But, I agree that closure is good, and I have learned that Bill's widow remarried and that his one daughter graduated from a fine university.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Body+found+years+later+glacier/3454073/story.html

 

[jjmcgo]

condolences

for the family and his friends.