For 13 years, mountaineer Helmut Simon had basked in the glory of his unique encounter with history.
In 1991, the 67-year-old German discovered Otzi the Iceman, the perfectly preserved body of a Neolithic hunter, emerging from the Similaun glacier, 3,200m up the Austrian Alps. Wherever he went in his beloved Alps, Simon wore a badge identifying himself as "Discoverer of Otzi."
But earlier this month, Simon's body was found in a stream in these same mountains.
On Oct. 15, the pensioner departed alone from the village of Bad Hofgastein, near Salzburg, up the 2,134m Gamskarkogel peak. His wife, Erika, who usually walked with him, did not go. Foul weather should have deterred the experienced climber, who did not even take a tent with him.
Half a meter of snow fell in the three days following his disappearance. Last Monday, Simon's wife returned to Nuremberg and rescuers gave up their search.
Simon and his wife had made the journey to Bolzano to visit Otzi several times a year. While scientists learned about Neolithic man by examining Otzi, Simon developed an affection for the 5,300-year-old and came to call the iceman his "brother."
"Being a discoverer is like being the author of an important invention," said Simon's Italian lawyer, Armin Weis. "It becomes your identity." Simon died just weeks before his lawyers were due to launch a case for him to receive a US$250,000 reward from Italian authorities for his discovery.
Rumors in the villages around the Austro-Italian border suggested Simon may have walked deliberately to his death. Other locals fear Otzi -- like Tutankhamen -- claimed Simon's life in revenge for disturbing the mummy's peace.
The body of the iceman is under renewed scrutiny this time by experts seeking to prove its value in cash rather than archeological terms.
The iceman is one of the best and oldest preserved human bodies because of an extraordinary combination of events. After apparently falling into a crevasse and dying of hypothermia, the neolithic hunter was quickly covered by snow which preserved his body intact.
It appears that Simon found him at the precise moment the body emerged from the
melting glacier and before it decomposed.
Under Italian law, Simon was entitled to receive up to 25 per cent of the value of his find. Since he was only recognized as the official finder of the mummy last year, legal proceedings will begin on Nov. 5 to determine the size of the reward.
The Otzi mummy, kept in Bolzano's south Tyrol museum of archaeology, has made about US$2 million per year for northern Italian authorities since 1998.
Simon turned down an offer from Italian authorities of US$50,000. His lawyers claim his family's reward should be four times as much.
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