By mapping out how the Walsh glacier had moved over the past eight decades, the expedition was able to pinpoint where explorers had abandoned their equipment, including cameras.
Leslie Hittmeier / Teton Gravity ExpeditionIn addition to the camera , the sashay also found cooking items and mounting gear .
Eighty - five year ago , explorers Bradford Washburn and Robert Bates were force to abandon a act of their supplies , including cameras , as they attempt to summit Canada ’s Mount Lucania . Now , an jaunt has retraced their footsteps and recover their camera .
“ That consequence when we saw the equipment that was indisputably theirs [ was ] just so surreal and validating in so many senses , ” professional skier Griffin Post , who came up with the idea to chase after down the tv camera , toldPEOPLE . “ There was so much ego - doubt over the last 18 months . ”
Leslie Hittmeier/Teton Gravity ExpeditionIn addition to the cameras, the expedition also found cooking items and climbing gear.
According toThe New York Times , Post first memorize about the photographic camera while readingEscape from Lucaniaby David Roberts , a 2002 account book that detailed Washburn and Bates ’ 1937 expedition . Post fixated on a couple of paragraph that mentioned that no other expedition had come across the gear that Washburn and Bates had been forced to vacate .
“ [ That ] got the steering wheel turning , ” Post said .
He teamed up with Teton Gravity Research ( TGR ) , a chemical group of mountaineers , and scientist to scour the Walsh glacier in Canada ’s Kluane National Park . But Post apace realized that their task would be easier said than done .
Tyler Ravelle/Teton Gravity ResearchThe group studied how the glacier had changed over the past eight decades in order to find the cameras.
“ You do all this research , you have all this science - based abstract thought , and you think it ’s totally possible : We ’re endure to go in there and look in this certain area , and it ’s going to be there , ” Post toldThe New York Times . “ And then the first sentence you really see the valley of the Walsh glacier and how monolithic it is and how many crevasse there are , how rugged the terrain is , your centre sort of sinks and you ’re kind of like , no way , there ’s just so much terrain . ”
Tyler Ravelle / Teton Gravity ResearchThe group studied how the glacier had alter over the preceding eight decades so as to find the camera .
to notice the tv camera , Post and his team enlist Dorota Medrzycka , a glaciologist whose understanding of how glacier had changed over time provided estimates on where Washburn and Bates had abandoned their gear .
Leslie Hittmeier/Teton Gravity ResearchThe expedition is hopeful that they’ll be able to salvage the film from one of the recovered cameras, seen here buried in snow.
Even with Medrzycka , however , Post ’s squad failed to determine Washburn and Bates ’ power train during their first endeavour in the spring of 2022 . That August , their second expedition also seemed on the precipice of failure as their seven-day trip to the glacier turn up nothing . But then Medrzycka had an approximation .
AsThe New York Timesreports , the glaciologist noted anomalies in the ice which suggest that two “ surge ” had make the Walsh glacier to move more rapidly than she ’d previously predicted . Medrzycka revise her estimates — and led Post and his team direct to the television camera .
“ sleep with that the educated surmise I made actually paid off and was right , it ’s a very incredible spirit , ” Medrzycka toldThe New York Times .
Her revised estimation was all the more astounding because the sashay had just one 60 minutes left before a chopper was scheduled to beak them up . Post toldPEOPLEthat they found the cameras “ at the 11th 60 minutes . ”
Leslie Hittmeier / Teton Gravity ResearchThe expedition is promising that they ’ll be able-bodied to salvage the pic from one of the recovered camera , seen here buried in blow .
Post ’s expedition came across a number of Washburn ’s camera , including a Fairchild F-8 aerial shutter camera , two motion picture cameras with picture , a DeVry “ Lunchbox ” camera model , and a Bell & Howell Eyemo 71 . They also found climb gear , tents , and cooking items , include part of a T - bone steak .
But the most beguiling finds is sure as shooting the cameras , many of which take film that Post is hopeful can be modernize .
“ It was so unlikely to find the stash in the first billet after 85 geezerhood , ” he toldThe New York Times . “ Yes , it ’s unlikely that some of that pic is salvageable — but possibly it is . ”
Even if the flick is unusable , however , Post feels like his expeditiousness bring home the bacon in other ways . For exercise , it shed important light on how the Walsh glacier had changed over time .
After reading about the 85 - twelvemonth - old cameras recovered in the Yukon , see how a melting glacier in the Italian Alpsrevealed artifacts left behind during World War I. Or , read aboutJohn Torrington , whose body was keep in meth for more than 140 year after he died in the doomed 1845 Franklin ocean trip to the Arctic .
