Chinese rescuers have found the luggage left by two missing prominent US mountain climbers in a remote village of southwest China's Sichuan Province, bringing about hope for the final finding of the two.

 

A group of 10 rescuers found the luggage at the home of a villager during a door-to-door inquiry in Lamaya Town near Genyen Mountain on Friday evening, and confirmed the luggage were theirs before reporting to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, on Saturday, deputy secretary general of the Sichuan Mountaineering Association Gao Min told Xinhua on Monday.

 

The villager told the rescuers seeking for information of Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff that the two climbers had hired him as a driver and left the luggage at his home on November 11 for mountain climbing, saying they would be back on November 24.

 

However, the two never came back since then.

 

Gao Min said the new finding enabled the rescue work to focus on Lamaya, a remote town in Sichuan without access to telephone and mobile phone.

 

The 10 rescuers had to drive some 200 km bumpy mountain road to the seat of Litang County to report the news on Saturday, Gao said.

 

The two US climbers were last heard from in early November, and missed their return flights to the US on December 7.

 

Charlie Fowler, 52, has been a mountain climber for 35 years and is an expert on climbing in southwestern China, while Christine Boskoff, 39, is among the top female high-altitude climbers in the world who has ascended six of the world's peaks over 7,800 meters, including Mount Qomolangma.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2006)