Hiker reunited with backpack 60 years after he fell into a glacier in Austria

Bag, camera and pipe belonging to 86-year-old are latest relics uncovered as glaciers melt due to global heating

An 86-year-old mountaineer has been reunited with his backpack and climbing equipment after the kit emerged from a melting glacier in Austria – more than 60 years after he was forced to leave them there.

Items including an ice axe, camera and a pipe dating from the 1950s or 1960s were discovered on the Sulztalferner glacier in Austria’s Tyrol region, at an altitude of 2,955 metres (9,700ft) above sea level, by a hiker in July.