Montrose - Daily Press

Katharhynn Heidelberg

Daily Press News Editor

GENYEN, CHINA — At least one of two missing Norwood climbers may be dead, according to rescue teams searching for Christine Boskoff and Charlie Fowler in the remote mountains of China.

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Chinese authorities have not positively identified the body, found at 1:30 p.m. (China time) Wednesday, at more than 17,000 feet in the Genyen Region, where the pair was thought to have been climbing.

“We don’t know for sure if it’s Chris or Charlie, or if it’s someone else,” Arlene Burns, a member of the Fowler-Boskoff Search Committee, said Wednesday.

The search committee formed in Telluride and has been coordinating efforts in China to locate the two world-class climbers, who failed to return home as scheduled Dec. 4. The U.S. State Department and Chinese authorities assisted search efforts, as did Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colorado.

The search eventually led teams to the climber’s luggage in the town of Litang, where they had stayed with a private driver. Once China’s government gave permission, searchers opened the luggage and determined the climbing gear was gone. The driver told searchers Boskoff and Fowler were to call him Nov. 24 from the town of Zhangna for a ride if they could not obtain one elsewhere.

Field search teams visited the Genyen Monastery Dec. 26, where monks confirmed seeing Boskoff and Fowler Nov. 12. The climbers apparently told the monks they were headed north of the monastery and would return in four days. Fowler and Boskoff were the last to travel in that direction, the monks said.

Burns said ground teams in China were scanning the mountain tops in the area, but searching at a lower elevation. Wednesday, a Chinese member of one of the teams spotted legs sticking out of the snow. Searchers noted the individual was wearing modern climbing gear, including blue gaitors and gray boots.

Burns said teams are following instructions from Chinese and U.S. embassy authorities and expect to know whether the body is that of Fowler, Boskoff or another person some time Thursday.

It was “certainly a possibility” the body is one of the two Norwood residents, Burns said.

“I think it’s the death of hope in one way, but at the same time, conclusion is really important. If this is indeed them, it’s better to find out sooner than later. I think it is really important, especially for the families, to have closure.”

What caused the doomed climber’s death wasn’t immediately apparent, though an avalanche or a fall is possible.

“What we’re hoping is there is a rope that will connect this climber to the other climber and we’ll have a possible ID,” Burns said.

Teams were waiting for daylight to proceed to the body, which Burns said was approximately three hours from the searchers’ rendezvous point.

The search committee was awaiting a field report and confirmation Thursday morning.

If the worst-case scenario proves true, Burns said Fowler and Boskoff were doing what they loved. “They were doing what they most loved doing, they were with the people they most loved being with and they were in an area of the world that was their idea of paradise,” she said.

“It doesn’t take the pain away, but it’s also a consolation in a way.”

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