Child’s Body Recovered From Crevasse In An Alaskan Glacier

The body of Shjon Brown was recovered Sunday by climbers after the 9-old-year boy had disappeared on a snowmobiling trip with his father. The boy went missing on Saturday and was presumed to be dead after falling into a glacial hole.

Brown and his family, from Fairbanks, Alaska, were attending the Arctic Man Classic, an annual ski/snowboarding race held near Paxson, Alaska, reports Reuters. On Saturday, Brown and his father were snowmobiling near the Hoodoo Mountains, located south of Delta Junction, Alaska, notes Associated Press.

Brown’s father had stopped snowmobiling and was taking a break when his son disappeared. Upon following the snowmobile’s tracks, the father discovered his son had fallen into a glacial hole, called a moulin. A Moulin is formed when water on the surface of a glacier enters the large body of ice, forming a shaft or crevasse. The hole Brown fell into was approximately 150 feet deep, Reuters notes.

Rescue climbers had previously attempted to find Brown’s body but could not traverse far enough down the crevasse. Climbers discovered the wreckage of the snowmobile and believed the boy was buried underneath the vehicle and snow.

Attempts to recover the boy’s body needed extremely skilled climbers and approval from the United States Army, notes Reuters. The U.S. Army approved the recovery attempt late Sunday and a team of climbers from the North American Outdoor Institute and a doctor found Brown’s body at 12:40 a.m. local time on Monday, AP notes. Members of the U.S. Army’s Black Rapids rescue team were also on hand to support the climbers.

The group of climbers reached the bottom of the crevasse, approximately 200-feet deep, according to AP, and found the boy’s body buried under six to eight feet of snow.