An 86-year-old mountaineer from Austria has been reunited with his climbing equipment more than six decades after leaving it behind on a glacier following a fall. The items, including an ice axe, camera, and a pipe dating back to the 1950s or 1960s, were discovered in July on the Sulztalferner glacier in Tyrol, Austria, at an elevation of 2,955 meters (9,700 feet).

The discovery was made by a hiker who came across the gear emerging from the melting ice. Austrian police launched an investigation, and by examining heavily frayed documents found inside the backpack, authorities were able to identify and locate the owner. The man had fallen into a crevasse while crossing the glacier with friends in August 1963. The group, roped together, was able to pull him free. To lessen his weight during the rescue, the man removed and discarded his backpack into the crevasse.

Police indicated that the mountaineer, whose name has not been publicly released, was too unwell to retrieve the equipment personally. Consequently, the items were returned to him through his son.

The reappearance of such artifacts highlights the accelerating retreat of European glaciers, a phenomenon scientists attribute predominantly to human-induced global warming. Melting ice across the region has unveiled numerous relics, ancient ecosystems, and human remains over recent decades.

Notable discoveries include a 2015 find of a barracks used by Italian troops during the White War—a campaign fought across Alpine terrain in World War I—on Mount Scorluzzo near the Stelvio Pass. Additionally, the bodies of several soldiers, some still dressed in their uniforms, have surfaced from melting ice in the past 20 years.

One of the most remarkable glacier discoveries occurred in 1991 with the unearthing of the 5,300-year-old mummified remains of a hunter known as Ötzi the Iceman. Found by two German hikers in the Ötztal Alps near the Austrian-Italian border, Ötzi's heavily tattooed body is now exhibited at a museum in Bolzano, Italy.