US climber's body found in China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-12-31 09:21

A body found on a remote mountain in southwest China on Wednesday has been identified as missing U.S. climber Charlie Fowler, said a local mountaineering association source on Saturday.

The body was identified by both Chinese and U.S. rescuers.

Fowler, 52, and fellow climber Christine Boskoff, 39, had not been heard from since November and failed to catch their return flights home on Dec. 7.

Liu Feng, a liaison worker with the Sichuan Mountaineering Association, said rescuers had found no signs of Boskoff, despite a thorough search within a radius of 20 to 30 meters from the body.

The body was moved to the county site of Litang, and would be taken in two days to Kangting, capital of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, for cremation, said Liu.

Representatives from the U.S. Consulate-General in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, and officials from Sichuan provincial government have arrived at the county site to deal with the remaining problems.

The body was found around 5:00 p.m. Wednesday at an altitude of5,300 meters on 6,204-meter-high Genyen Mountain in Sichuan Province.

Most of the upper part of the body was buried in snow, but the legs were exposed.

The death was probably caused by an avalanche, said Liu.

The luggage of the missing U.S. climbers was found by rescuers at a remote village in Lamaya Town near Genyen Mountain during door-to-door inquiries on Dec. 22.



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