Body of one missing U.S. climber believed found on Chinese mountain

Wednesday, December 27th 2006, 2:23 pm

By: News On 6

BEIJING (AP) _ Searchers found a body that is thought to be one of two American climbers lost for more than a month on a remote mountain in southwestern China, while the second was still missing and presumed also to be dead, a search coordinator said Wednesday.

The team had not identified the body, which was partly buried by snow, said Arlene Burns, a friend of the missing climbers, Christine Boskoff and Charlie Fowler of Norwood, Colo.

``The rescuers were told to take pictures without disturbing anything. They will go back up in the morning with shovels,'' Burns said from Telluride, Colo., where she was helping coordinate the search.

Boskoff, a top female climber, and Fowler, a well-known climbing guide and photographer, were reported missing after they failed to return to the United States on Dec. 4. The search was hampered initially because the two did not leave details of where they planned to climb.

``We are tremendously sad they are not coming home, but they were doing what they loved,'' Burns said. ``For these guys, they were there by choice, climbing beautiful, pristine peaks with someone they respected at the top of their skills.''

Burns said it was too early to say what happened. ``Whether they fell off the face or were swept off the face, we don't know,'' she said.

She said the body was found at the 17,390-foot level on Genie Mountain, also known as Genyen Peak, not far from the Sichuan border with Tibet. The mountain is 20,354 feet tall.

Boskoff's family was waiting to hear which body was found, said Paul Feld, her brother.

``I guess it's good in a way that it does bring closure if it is indeed them,'' he said from his parents' home in Appleton, Wis.

Feld said his sister never talked about dying, but the family knew she was doing something she loved however risky. ``She didn't need to say it,'' he said. ``We knew that.''

Search efforts were complicated because the climbers did not leave detailed plans and searchers initially did not know which province in southwestern China to check.

But a clue to their whereabouts emerged several days ago when searchers found a driver who dropped the pair off near the mountain Nov. 11. They told him they would climb the mountain and then meet him Nov. 24 to pick up their luggage, but didn't show up, the driver reported.

Boskoff, owner of the Seattle adventure travel company Mountain Madness, had climbed six of the world's peaks over 26,000 feet, including Mount Everest. Fowler, an expert on climbing in southwestern China, had guided climbers up Everest and scaled others of the most difficult peaks.