After being abandoned in the ice of a Yukon glacier in 1937, Bradford Washburn’s cameras and equipment were discovered.
In addition to being a mountaineer, Mountaineer Washburn was a photographer, a geographer, and the founding director of the Boston Science Museum in Massachusetts.
According to a recent Facebook post from Parks Canada, three athletes ’embarked on a mission unlike any other: to locate a wonderful piece of history’ last spring.
To locate the long-lost cache of cameras and other equipment, a crew assembled by extreme sports video producers Teton Gravity Research went to Kluane Park in the Yukon Territory.
With three other mountaineers, Washburn had embarked on an expedition in 1937 to try the ascent of Mount Lucania, the third-highest peak in Canada at 5,226 metres (17,145 feet). It was the highest peak ever scaled in North America at the time.
When faced with harsh conditions on the descent, Washburn and fellow American mountaineer Robert Bates had to pare down their gear to the basic essentials, leaving behind cameras and climbing gear that would one day turn out to be treasures.
On Facebook, Teton Gravity Research wrote, ‘This cache includes three historic cameras with photographs of what these mountains were like 85 years ago. They have been buried in ice since 1937.’
At the age 96, Washburn passed away in 2007.
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