A researcher from Italy is missing after falling into a stream on Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier – after the body of another man, a hiker from Arizona, was found earlier this week off a trail near the glacier, authorities said.
According to the state department of public safety, Alaska wildlife troopers received a report on Tuesday that a man had gone missing after falling into a stream on the glacier and being pushed by the water into a small, vertical shaft in the ice known as a moulin. The man, whose name was not immediately released, was with two other people when he fell. He was conducting research on the glacier at the time, a department spokesperson, Tess Williams, said by email on Wednesday.
A local ice rescue team responded but found the roughly 2ft (0.6-meter) wide hole was filled with rushing water and determined that efforts to find the man would be too dangerous, the department of public safety said.
The glacier – part of the vast Juneau Icefield – is a popular destination for residents and cruise ship passengers, though many tourists view it from across Mendenhall Lake, within a more developed area of the Mendenhall Glacier recreation area that includes a visitor center. The glacier is about 13 miles from downtown Juneau.
Also this week, on Monday, searchers using cellphone location data found the body of Thomas Casey, 69, off a trail near the glacier, according to the department. Casey had last been seen on Saturday morning and was believed to have died from injuries from a fall. Juneau police had said that Casey was in the city for the summer.
In July, a Kentucky woman visiting Juneau on a cruise ship was found dead on the mountains near downtown after she failed to return from a hike.
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