The body of Australian climber Andrew Clem Lindenmayer, who went missing in Mount Gongga (Minya Konka) in southwest China's Sichuan Province in May, has been found, local officials said on Tuesday.

 

Andrew Clem Lindenmayer

 

The news came one day after the Sichuan Mountaineering Association confirmed the discovery of the body of Christine Boskoff, a renowned US climber, in Genyen Mountain.

 

Villagers found a body on July 19 at Riwuqie peak 4,600 meters above the sea level. It has been identified as that of Lindenmayer, Guo Changping, an official with the Ganzi prefecture government, said on Tuesday.

 

Lindenmayer, 48, wrote his last e-mail to his wife on April 18, saying he was planning to travel to Mount Gongga. He was reported missing in May.

 

The Ganzi prefecture government has requested seven towns in Kangding county to mobilize villagers to look for Lindenmayer since June.

 

Last month, searchers looking for the Australian found a body believed to be that of a Japanese mountaineer who disappeared 26 years ago.

 

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

 

Gongga, or Minya Konka -- Tibetan for "highest snow-capped mountain" -- attracts both tourists and mountaineers to its soaring peaks and panoramic scenery. It has more than 20 peaks above 6,000 meters, the highest at 7,556 meters.

 

Mt. Gongga, or Minya Konka/china.org.cn photo

 

Eight teams comprising a total of 24 climbers have made successful ascents of the mountain between 1957 and 1999. But more than 20 people, including four Chinese, 14 Japanese, one French, one American, one Swiss and the Australian Andrew Clem Lindenmayer died on the peak.

 

Gao Min, deputy secretary general of the Sichuan Mountaineering Association, called on foreign climbers to register with the association before heading to the mountains.

 

"Many foreigners just climb the mountains in Sichuan without registration, so that they don't know the uncertain weather conditions and complicated geology well enough," Gao said.

 

Eight of the 10 foreigners who died while climbing Sichuan's mountains since November 2005 failed to register with the association, said Gao.

 

Gao said the association would offer climbers advice on local guides, weather conditions and camping sites if they registered.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2007)