A Chinese volunteer rescue team has found a body, suspected to
be the one of two US climbers who have been missing since early
November, on a mountain in southwest China.
The body was found around 5:00?PM Wednesday at an altitude
of 5,300 meters on Genyen Mountain in Sichuan Province, a source
with the Sichuan Mountaineering Association said Wednesday
night.
Climbers Charlie Fowler, 52, and Christine Boskoff, 39, have not
been heard from since November and failed to catch their return
flights home on Dec. 7.
"Most of the upper part of the body was buried in snow, but the
legs were exposed," said the source.
Rescuers could not properly identify the body in the dark and
cold, he said.
The rescue team had returned to camp at a scenic zone on Genyen
Mountain at an altitude of 4,200 meters. They would confirm the
identify of the body in the next few days, according to the
source.
The discovery was confirmed by a US rescue team, the source
said.
The 10-member team that found the body comprised eight
volunteers from Chinese mountain climbing clubs, a representative
of the United States, and a local guide.
"The association has asked the sports bureau and local
mountaineering association of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
to evacuate nearly 200 people around the camp and close off the
roads to Genyen Mountain," said Gao Min, deputy secretary general
of the association.
The luggage of the two US missing climbers was found by rescuers
at a remote village in Lamaya Town near Genyen Mountain during
door-to-door inquiries by rescuers last Friday.
The 6,204-meter Genyen Mountain is the third highest peak in
Sichuan and local Tibetans believe it is sacred.
(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2006)