Fifty years ago, eight Americans set off for South America to climb Aconcagua, one of the world’s mightiest mountains.
Things quickly went wrong. Two climbers died. Their bodies were left behind.
Now, a camera belonging to one of the deceased climbers has emerged from a receding glacier near the summit …
… and one of mountaineering’s most enduring mysteries has been given air and light.
Story by John Branch Videos by Emily Rhyne December 9, 2023
John Branch interviewed dozens of people, reviewed thousands of documents and made multiple reporting trips, including two to Argentina. Emily Rhyne shot video in three countries and from a helicopter above the summit of Aconcagua.
High on Aconcagua, the Western Hemisphere’s highest mountain, the shrinking Polish Glacier spits out what it once devoured — in this case, a 50-year-old Nikomat 35-millimeter camera.
Two porters, preparing for an upcoming expedition, had been securing ropes in the thin and arid air of a clear February day. It was midsummer in South America. The camera glistened in the sun, daring to be noticed.
The lens was shattered. A dial on top showed that 24 photographs had been taken.
The bottom half of the camera was saddled into a worn leather holster with a thick strap. On the holster, in blue embossing tape, was an American name and a Colorado address.
In the snow-and-ice seasonal cycles of the mountains, abandoned and lost equipment is discovered each summer — tattered tents, dropped ice axes, lost mittens. Occasionally, a body.
This was not just another camera, though the porters did not know that yet. One of them carried it down to camp. There, a veteran guide named Ulises Corvalan was cooking lunch.
Corvalan glanced up. He casually asked about the name on the bottom of the camera.
“Janet Johnson,” came the reply.
Corvalan gasped and swore. “Janet Johnson!?” he shouted.
Excitement boiled instantly. Do you know about Janet Johnson, the schoolteacher? About John Cooper, the NASA engineer? About the deadly 1973 American expedition?
Have you heard the legend?
It had been handed down for decades, veering toward myth, whispered like a ghost story.
Here is what was certain: A woman from Denver, maybe the most accomplished climber in the group, had last been seen alive on the glacier. A man from Texas, part of the recent Apollo missions to the moon, lay frozen nearby.
There were contradictory statements from survivors and a hasty departure. There was a judge who demanded an investigation into possible foul play. There were three years of summit-scratching searches to find and retrieve the bodies.
Their discovery stirred more intrigue, leaving more questions than answers. That’s the imbalance of all the best mysteries — facts that don’t quite add up, gaps that imaginations rush to fill.
That is how Janet Johnson and John Cooper became part of the folklore of Aconcagua.
And now, nearly five decades later, an old camera had emerged from…
2023-12-09 20:21:04
Link from www.nytimes.com
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