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Some 32 years after he went missing, the body of aspiring mountain guide Patrice Hyvert has been found, frozen, on a glacier in the Mont Blanc range.
Just 23 at the time he vanished during a solo climb of one of the Mont Blanc massif’s main peaks, Hyvert was found last Thursday on the Talefre glacier with his gear (including his skis) and his wallet (including his ID) still intact, reports the Guardian.
A spokesperson for Chamonix Police said: “We identified the body as that of Patrice Hyvert, who disappeared in a snowstorm in 1982.
“After 32 years, his family will finally be able to lay his body to rest.”
Mr Hyvert went missing on Monday 1st March 1982 during a solo ascent of the 4,122 metre mountain.
The young mountaineer was climbing to the summit with the intention to ski down to the tourist-packed village of Chamonix in the valley below.
But the climber found himself trapped by a snowstorm severe enough to halt all chance of a helicopter rescue for the next two days.
When the weather did subside, mountain rescue teams were able to save daredevil alpinist Jean-Marc Boivin, who had begun a similar solo climb, but on another side of the mountain to Mr Hyvert.
In a harrowing interview at the time of the disappearance, Mr Hyvert’s father told journalists how he was sure his son had reached the summit and simply decided to ski down another route, explaining the lack of body.
It is now believed that a lack of visibility caused Mr. Hyvert to fall to his death at the bottom of a crevasse amidst the Talèfre glacier, which sits around 2600m.
Agencies/Canadajournal
