An Austrian climber just got an unexpected delivery from 1963. Police in Tyrol say a hiker spotted a long-frozen backpack on the Sulztalferner glacier last month, nearly 10,000 feet up. Inside: an ice axe, camera, whistle, and documents that still showed the owner’s name. Police, believing the find could be evidence of a long-ago accident, determined that the man was still alive. The 86-year-old man had tumbled into a crevasse during an Aug. 4, 1963 climbing trip. He was roped together with companions who hauled him out, and he ditched the pack to lighten his load.
Melted ice finally released the gear 63 years later. Police said that because the man is in poor health, the son traveled to the area this week to accept the items from an officer. “The son thanked the finder and the police officers and emphasized that this story had a very special meaning for his family—because if his father had not survived the accident, the family would not exist in its current form today,” police said in a news release. The find underscores how retreating glaciers are revealing long-buried objects—and bodies—as global temperatures rise, CNN reports.