More bodies of lost climbers will surface at the foot of Tasman Glacier as the ice retreats and the lake expands, an alpine expert says. The remains of a two climbers have been found recently.
One find is believed to be a teenager killed in a slab avalanche in September 1973. The remains - potentially 42 years old - were found near the bottom of the glacier in late January and recovered last month by a police disaster victim identification team.
Police are awaiting DNA results before releasing the man's name.
Another set of remains were found at the bottom of the Hochstetter ice fall, as it enters the glacier, last week.
The finds were two of up to 70 people whose bodies have not been recovered after dying in Aoraki-Mt Cook National Park.
But Andrew Hobman, an avalanche and alpine safety expert with Mountain Safety Council, says the number of bodies found will start to rise now the glacier is receding and the lake it feeds into, Lake Tasman, gets larger.
"We'll see this more and more I think, more people showing up years, decades after they disappeared, as the lake grows and speeds up the melting," he told NZ Newswire.
"It happens from time to time (that bodies are found) but with temperatures rising, we'll find more." Body recovery would bring relief to families of missing climbers, many who struggle to accept that their loved one cannot be recovered at the time of the incident, he said.
The death toll at Aoraki-Mount Cook National Park now stands at 238.
In the most recent incident in late December, three men - Sydney doctor Mike Bishop, 53, and German father and son Raphael Viellehner, 58, and Johann, 27 - disappeared on the Linda Glacier.
Their bodies have not been recovered but Mr Hobman said it was very likely they too would turn up at the foot of the Tasman Glacier. "Who knows how long it will take but there's a very good chance that will happen."
Senior Constable Brent Swanson said one or two bodies are recovered this way each year in the park.
"It's not always possible to identify them but we're hopeful in this latest case that we'll be able to."
Monday 2 February 2015
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/receding-glacier-will-reveal-more-bodies-on-mt-cook--alpine-expert-2015030305
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