I see dead people

Two mountain climbers who disappeared seventeen years ago were recently found on Mont Blanc in the French Alps. Apparently, their bodies were preserved in ice and had recently resurfaced as the ice melted (which portends more presents to be unwrapped thanks to global warming). It doesn't go into much detail about the bodies, but you can let your imagination run with that one if you feel so inclined.

I'll be honest here. This sort of thing kind of freaks me out. Not in a scared-to-live kind of way, but in a quasi-creepy, vast-unknown kind of way. I've always felt like we are surrounded by dead bodies. I'm not talking about cemeteries or ghosts. I'm talking about remains of deceased folks, preserved or otherwise, that are yet to be discovered in locations all around us. Just think about all the missing people in the world. Unless they're all living and waiting to be found, then their remains are almost certainly out there somewhere -- waiting to be unearthed or tripped over or unfrozen.

In the article referenced above, it also mentions George Mallory, another mountain climber whose remains were found on Mount Everest in 1999, 75 years after he had disappeared. And then there was the WWII pilot who was identified earlier this year. He had crashed in 1942 and remained MIA until his body was discovered last October in the Sierra Nevadas. It took a few months, but they finally figured out his identity.

And it's not just mountain climbers and pilots who disappear in mountain ranges. A summer reveler found the submerged body of a dead guy at nearby Lake Allatoona last year. A person was just swimming in the lake and then, "Oops...dead guy." I don't remember the details, but I seem to recall that the deceased had disappeared a couple of weeks earlier and his exact whereabouts were not known until this unfortunate swimmer realized that he was splashing around in nature's own impromptu morgue. In another example that hits close to home, I had a first cousin who went fishing off the coast of Florida about twenty years ago. He disappeared and still hasn't been found to this day. Obviously, I'm not optimistic that his remains will be found, but you never know. Stranger things have happened.

So there you go. That should give you a little something to ponder for a while. Next time you're in a thicket of woods or a body of water or on a mountain trail, just remember that you may not be alone -- so watch where you step. It may be you in the news next time as the party who discovered Jimmy Hoffa or DB Cooper or it may be your family who finally finds out what happened to that long-lost relative. You, too, may see dead people -- whether you like it or not.

UPDATE (08/21/07): Apparently, they've found another dead person. This guy was a second airman who went down in the plane crash in 1942 (referenced above). You never know what secrets mountains or lakes or oceans may hold.