The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Climbers’ bodies find stirs 30-year mystery
Friend looks back on loss of mountaineers who vanished at snout of glacier in Himalayas
A Scottish mountaineer who spent weeks searching for two friends who disappeared in the Himalayas more than 30 years ago has spoken of his relief after their bodies were finally found.
Steve Aisthorpe, 55, was part of an expedition to Pumori on the Nepal-Tibet border with Kristinn Rúnarsson and Thorsteinn Gudjonsson.
They were last seen alive at a height of 21,650ft on October 18, 1988.
Their remains were discovered last month by an American mountaineer at the snout of the glacier below the climb route which suggests they fell down the face, into the crevasse at its base.
Mr Aisthorpe, a mission development worker for the Church of Scotland, said the positioning of the ropes implied his friends, who were both 27, had either reached, or almost reached, the ridge at the top of the face when disaster struck.
He said it is likely the remains were slowly carried down the mountain by a retreating glacier over the last 30 years.
The bodies were brought back to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, by local climbers and their ashes returned to Iceland following a cremation.
Mr Aisthorpe, of Kincraig near Aviemore, said: “The discovery of the remains of Thorsteinn and Kristinn after so many years has inevitably brought many emotions to the surface for all who knew and loved these wonderful guys.
“I plan to go to Reykjavík in Iceland to meet their families soon and pay my respects.”
Mr Aisthorpe, author of a book called The Invisible Church, said further clues about what exactly happened to the men could emerge because two camera films were found in a pocket of a jacket and have been sent to a specialist in Australia for development.
He became friends with Thorsteinn in 1987 after they were introduced by a mutual friend.
Pumori, which is nearly 23,500ft high, is one of Mount Everest’s more challenging neighbours.
The four-man expedition, which included Jon Geirsson, established a base camp and over 12 days moved up to a high camp on the upper Changri Shar glacier. Mr Geirsson fell ill and decided to return home.
Mr Aisthorpe had also begun to suffer from a gastric flu and on October 16, 1988, he descended to the village of Pheriche where a doctor told him it would take a week to recover.
Mr Aisthorpe said: “I’ve never felt as alone as the day I arrived back at our high camp.
“I desperately hoped that Kristinn and Torsteinn had descended safely and were now lying in their sleeping bags in the tiny red tent camp.
“As it came into view, I called out at the top of my voice – my calls echoed from the rocks and ice before fading.
“But the silence was palpable.”
I called out at the top of my voice – my calls echoed from the rocks and ice. STEVE AISTHORPE