Body recovered of boy who fell into hole in Alaska glacier

FAIRBANKS, Alaska The body of a 9-year-old boy who disappeared while snowmobiling with his father has been recovered from a crevasse in an Alaska glacier.

Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said by email that the body of Shjon Brown, of Fairbanks, was recovered at 12:40 a.m. Monday.

The boy was on a Saturday snowmobile outing with his father and others in the Hoodoo Mountains south of Delta Junction. As his father took a break on the side of a hill, Shjon drove around a small mound and did not reappear. His father traced the boy's tracks and discovered that he had fallen through a moulin, a hole formed when water on the glacier's surface melts ice to a crevasse below.

Climbers from the North American Outdoor Institute and an emergency room doctor reached the bottom of the crevasse an estimated 200 feet from the surface. A climber spotted the boy's goggles and helmet and the partially visible snowmobile.

Climbers who descended into the hole late Sunday said they found Shjon's body buried in six to eight feet now snow underneath his snowmobile.

The glacier is about five miles northwest of the site of the Arctic Man Classic, a race involving snowmobiles and skiers or snowboarders.

Personnel from the Army's Black Rapids high angle rescue team also responded to the scene.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that the boy was with his father Saturday riding in the Hoodoo Mountains off the Richardson Highway between Delta Junction and Glennallen.

They were about five miles northwest of the Arctic Man Classic, a race involving snowmobiles and skiers or snowboarders.

The father took a break to watch from a hillside. He told troopers that Shjon, pronounced Shawn, rode around a small mound and did not reappear. His father went to investigate and saw the crevasse.

The hole was reported as a "moulin," a hole formed when water of the glacier surface erodes the ice.