A researcher from Italy is feared dead after he fell into a stream and was carried by the water into a hole in the ice Tuesday on Mendenhall Glacier, authorities said.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers said Wednesday afternoon that the man, whose name was not released, was with two other people when he fell. He was conducting research on the glacier.
“The two people he was traveling with could no longer see him once he fell into the opening,” the dispatch report said.
Though a technical ice rescue team was sent, “it was determined to be too dangerous to attempt to locate the missing man” because the hole, which was about 2 feet wide, was filled with rushing water.
Officials said that the man was a resident of Italy and that they were trying to notify his family there.
Hundreds of thousands of people visit the Mendenhall Glacier annually, most of them passengers from the cruise ships that stop at the Port of Juneau. They come to view a glacier that has thinned and retreated thousands of feet since the mid-1700s, according to satellite images from NASA.
Another man was found dead at the glacier this week. On Monday, the body of a tourist, Thomas Casey, 69, was found off a trail near the glacier, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
Casey, a visitor from Arizona, had last been seen Saturday morning. The police said that they believed he died from injuries from a fall during a hike.
Rescuers, including dog teams, followed pings on his phone to find Casey about 5 p.m. Monday. His body will be sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office, state troopers said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
