Free Republic

Officials in Italy used a combination of flying drones and AI software to locate the remains of a man who vanished in SeptemberBack in September 2024, a 64-year-old climber went missing in Italy’s Cottian Alps. In late July 2025, rescuers finally found his body, using a combination of flying drones and an advanced artificial intelligence software program, according to WIRED Italia. Nicola Ivaldo, a doctor from Liguria, disappeared on the north face of 12,602-foot Monviso on September 14. Colleagues reported him missing when he failed to show up at work two days later, and search efforts began on September 17....

A treasure trove of emeralds, rubies and sapphires buried for decades on a glacier off France’s Mont Blanc has finally been shared between the climber who discovered them and local authorities, eight years after they were found. The mountaineer stumbled across the precious stones in 2013. They had remained hidden in a metal box that was onboard an Indian plane that crashed in the desolate landscape some 50 years earlier. In September 2012, India took possession of a bag of diplomatic mail from a Boeing 707 flying from Mumbai which crashed on the south-west face of Mont Blanc on 24...

Pat White got a head hit, and is down, unmoving. West Virginia FReepers, and anybody else, prayers requested. They are taking him off the field as I type.

VIENNA, Austria - Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountaineer and former Nazi who became a friend and tutor of the young Dalai Lama, died Saturday. He was 93. Harrer's family said in a statement that, "in great peace, he carried out his final expedition" when he died in a hospital. His family, which did not specify a cause of death, said Harrer would be buried Jan. 14. Actor Brad Pitt played Harrer in the film "Seven Years in Tibet," which was based on Harrer's 1953 memoir of his time in the Himalayan nation. Born July 6, 1912, the son of a...

Mountaineer cuts off trapped arm with penknife By Andrew Gumbel 03 May 2003 A mountaineer whose right arm became trapped under a heavy boulder in a remote stretch of the eastern Utah desert took the drastic step of hacking off his own arm with a pocket knife before abseiling down a sheer rock wall and looking for help. The extraordinary story of Aron Ralston, a fitness fanatic and highly experienced mountaineer, hit the headlines yesterday as police officials from Green River, Utah, gave accounts of his bravery to American television. "He's pretty darn tough. He wanted to live. He saved...