The Tyrolean Alps: September 1991
Tom and Sonya were married at June in the Old Abbey at Lancaster. Obligations to family and their work at British Petroleum caused them to postpone their honeymoon until the fall. Both were fitness buffs, and a few days in the Alps was their idea of fun. Finally, in late August, the newlyweds managed to get a week off and flew to Innsbruck. From there they planned a six-day trek taking them to Turin and their flight home. Everything was smashing for the love struck couple as they enjoyed the air, exertion, fantastic views and quaint little inns each night. And then it happened, midday on the fifth day of their trek, on a high pass leading to Tyrol.
"Tom, look at that! Isn't that hair sticking out of the ice over there?" Sonya grabbed Tom by the arm, and was pointing to a spot on the glacier about ten meters off the trail. They both rushed over for a closer look.
She was right. "Oh, my god, it is hair. And it looks like the top of someone's head! Poor bloody devil. Must have died in an avalanche last winter." She was shaking as Tom held her close and they stared at the grotesque sight. Soon, others who were on the mountain were crowding around them., gawking at the grotesque sight.
Their trek halted for the day. They waited two hours for an Austrian rescue team to arrive by helicopter. The team, dressed in identical yellow jump suits, jumped out of the helicopter with large packs and ran over. The leader of the four-man group ordered the spectators to back away, and then he and his crew began hacking away at the ice above where the body lay encased with ice axes. The ice was blue and hard, but the men made rapid progress. After a few minutes, they had uncovered a leg.
Tom noticed that the leg was covered by a leather legging, and a strange, hand sewn leather boot covered the foot. The lead rescuer hooked the leg with his ax and began pulling on it.
"Wait! Something's wrong! That's not somebody who just died!" Tom yelled, prepared to run in and stop him.
The Austrian rescuer spoke impeccable English, and understood immediately what the irate Englishman was yelling. He stopped pulling, held up his hand to stop the others, and drew in for a closer look. "Ja, this is old. The Englishman is right. We had better be more careful with this one," he said, rubbing a piece of tattered leather in his fingers.
The Austrian stopped the body recovery. After radioing his authorities for guidance, he came back and ordered everyone to move back further. His men then cordoned off the area with tape and covered the exposed parts of the body with a tarp to keep the sun off and keep it frozen.
It was getting late, so their guide told Tom and Sonya they had to leave. They hiked back into Innsbruck at 7pm. The town was already abuzz with the discovery. As they lounged in a comfortable ski lodge that night and ate room service food, they watched subtitled Austrian TV to try to keep up with what was happening. They both agreed to curtail their return to work and to watch the events unfolding. They set their alarm for 4am but didn’t sleep.
As dawn broke Tom and Sonya were hiking back up the mountain. They were not alone. It seemed like half of Innsbruck had the same idea they had. When the couple got to the site of their discovery, a much larger area had been cordoned off. The crowd grew, and four helicopters were parked on the ice field. Several other helicopters came and went, probably carrying news photographers.
Archaeologists were clearly in charge now. Each bit of leather, grass, hair, wood, or other material was carefully photographed in place, and then tweezers were used to remove the fragments to marked plastic bags. This process took three days. The ice was chipped off with surgical precision, and the body, covered in leather with grass sticking out of holes in it, gradually came into view. There was a long bow and arrows, a wooden backpack made of white birch, and a hasped ax. The body appeared to be that of an old man. It was extremely well preserved. When the body was free of the ice, it was wrapped in a thermal blanket to keep it cold, and then carefully placed in a box. The box was carted off, and the work continued, removing bits and pieces spread over a several square meter area of ice.
Tom and Sonya, with many others, groped their way back to Innsbruck each night. They were lucky to have their room. The town was full of reporters. Their discovery was big news. Soon it became public who found the ice man, and they had to submit to a series of interviews about how they found the body. The British press awaited them when they returned home. Finally, after a few weeks of media flurry, the newlyweds were allowed to return to their lives.
The Iceman, as he came to be known, became the source of intense study. The tools and material he carried with him were studied to determine why and how he came about carrying them. The evidence found with him rewrote popular theory about life in the Copper Age. The ax found with him was one of the best examples of Copper Age tools ever found. Scientists named him Otzi, after the region in which he was found. After a long battle between Austria and Italy, his remains were interred in a new museum built for him in Tyrol. Scientific study continued as other frozen bodies were found in Siberia and in the Andes.
