More than six decades after a young British researcher vanished into an Antarctic crevasse, his remains have been found. A receding glacier led to the discovery of Dennis "Tink" Bell, who was 25 when he died in 1959, reports CBS News. Bell had been working as a meteorologist with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, now known as the British Antarctic Survey, on July 26 of that year while out on an expedition to a glacier on Admiralty Bay on King George Island.
At one point, Bell left his sled to encourage the tiring dog team, per the BBC. He was walking with the dogs, without his skis, when he fell into the crevasse. His colleague, Jeff Stokes, nearly saved him by tossing down a rope he had tied to his belt. However, the belt snapped just as Bell reached the lip of the crevasse, and he fell back in and was never seen again. A Polish research team found Bell's remains earlier this year near rocks exposed by the retreating glacier, and DNA analysis confirmed the identification.
"I had long given up on finding my brother," brother David Bell tells the BBC. "It is just remarkable." Bell's case is part of a broader trend, as receding glaciers worldwide have revealed the remains of other missing adventurers. Recent finds include a mountaineer in Peru, missing for 22 years, and climbers in the Swiss Alps missing for decades.