CHENGDU: The body of Christine Boskoff, a renowned American climber, has been found on a remote mountain in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, a local mountaineering association official said yesterday.

Rescuers resumed the search for Boskoff in the Genyen Mountains this month after the snow had melted.

Her body was found close to the site where the body of fellow climber Charlie Fowler was found in December, Gao Min, deputy secretary general of the Sichuan Mountaineering Association, said.

"It appears the two died in an avalanche," he said.

Boskoff, 39, and Fowler, 52, disappeared in November last year. Boskoff was a top climber, having scaled peaks of more than 7,800 m, including Mount Qomolangma (Mount Everest).

Fowler had been a climber for 35 years and was familiar with the ranges in southwestern China.

The rescuers said it was still too dangerous to remove Boskoff's body.

The Sichuan Mountaineering Association has informed US diplomats in China of the discovery, and is awaiting a response on how to deal with the body.

Meanwhile, the search for Australian climber Andrew Clem Lindenmayer, reported missing on Mount Gongga last month, continues in the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan.

The prefecture's government has ordered seven towns in Kangding County to mobilize villagers to look for Lindenmayer.

During the search last month, the body, believed to be that of a Japanese mountaineer, who disappeared 26 years ago on Mount Gongga, was found.

A 12-strong mountaineering team from Hokkaido, Japan, set out to climb Mount Gongga in May 1981, but eight members disappeared when moving to an area 7,450 m above sea level.

Xinhua

(China Daily 07/24/2007 page4)