This is every adventurers dream come true. A guy (the French mountaineer prefers to remain anonymous) was climbing the Bosson glacier on Mt. Blanc, France when he stumbled upon a metal box. He opened the box and found bags labeled “made in India.” Inside the bags were rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. Very Indiana Jones, huh?
The gems are estimated at a net worth of $332,000 USD. Not bad for a day of climbing. How many times have his parents told him: “Climbing will get you nowhere!” Well, they were wrong this time. This guy very well may be made for life after this climb. Or at least he would be if he hadn’t handed it all over to the police.
The gems are suspected to be from one of two mysterious Air Indian plane crashes from 1950 and 1966…
“On November 3, 1950 the Malabar Princess, an Air India plane, crashed on Mont Blanc killing 58 people on board. And 16 years later, on 24 January 1966, a Boeing 707 Air India plane en route from Mumbai to New York, came down at the same location. All 117 passengers on board were killed.” – thelocal.fr
French authorities have contacted Air India about the treasure. If no once claims it, they’ll just give it back to the French Mountaineer who found it.
Many other artifacts from these two Air India plane crashes have been recovered on Mt. Blanc over the years.
“In August last year a diplomatic post bag was discovered in the same area on the mountain.
The bag stamped “Diplomatic mail” and “Ministry of External Affairs”, was found by mountain rescue workers. The Indian embassy in Paris said it was looking forward to receiving the “very late mail”.” – thelocal.fr
What would you do if you found treasure on a high alpine glacier like this? Personally, I don’t think I’d have any problem keeping it…
AFP PHOTO JEAN PIERRE CLATOT
Talk about a banger day of climbing…