Undeveloped films may hold clue to how climbers died in Himalayas

A PAIR of undeveloped camera films were found in the pockets of two friends who disappeared in the Himalayas more than 30 years ago.

The pictures may provide clues as to what happened to the 27-year-old Icelandic climbers, whose remains were discovered last month by an American mountaineer at the edge of a glacier on the Nepal-Tibet border.

Steve Aisthorpe, 55, a Church of Scotland missionary worker who was part the 1988 expedition to Mount Pumori with Kristinn Runarsson and Thorsteinn Gudjonsson, said it was likely that the pair fell from the face of the mountain and had been carried slowly down by a retreating glacier over the last three decades.

Mr Aisthorpe, who spent weeks searching for his friends, MOUNTAIN MYSTERY: Kristinn Runarsson, left, and Thorsteinn Gudjonsson who disappeared in the Himalayas over 30 years ago attempting to climb Mount Pumori, inset.

said the films, discovered in the pocket of a jacket and now sent to a specialist in Australia for development, may shed more light on what happened.

The bodies were brought back to Kathmandu, the capital

of Nepal, by a group of local climbers, and a cremation service was attended by relatives, who then took the men’s ashes home to Iceland.

Mr Aisthorpe, of Kincraig near Aviemore in the Highlands, said: “The discovery of the remains of Thorsteinn and Kristinn after so many years have inevitably brought many emotions to the surface for all who knew and loved these wonderful guys.”

During the four-man expedition up the challenging 23,494ft neighbour of Mount Everest, Mr Aisthorpe had begun to suffer from gastric flu and, along with another ill mountaineer, descended to the village of Pheriche to consult a doctor.

Told that it would take a week to recover, he sent a message back to the camp suggesting that Mr Runarsson and Mr Gudjonsson “should feel free” to make a summit attempt without him. They set off and were never seen again.

“I’ve never felt as alone as the day I arrived back at our high camp,” he said.

PICTURE: STEVE AISTHORPE/PA WIRE.