She was assisting him with a book about them, and at her insistence he was making a special study of the Magdelena, rather than any other Alpine glacier.

Pollen found in his body placed his final hours in the springtime, and his last hike probably along a path up the Senales Valley toward an alpine pass just west of the Similaun Glacier.

“A glacier is a giant part of the alpine landscape, something we always saw as immortal, ” Mr. Schell said.