Body of American mountain climber found in SW China

BEIJING (Reuters) - The body of an American mountain climber has been found in southwest China, while a search continues for two other climbers who disappeared last month while trying to scale Mount Edgar.

The body of Jonathan Copp, 35, was found on an ice sheet about 4,000 meters above sea level, the China Daily said. The summit of Mount Edgar, or Mount Gongga in Chinese, is 6,400 meters above sea level in Luding County, Sichuan Province.

The head of China's national climbing team was helping in the search for Wade Johnson and Micah Dash, who with Copp were scheduled to have returned from their climb about May 28. Friends reported them missing to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, on June 4.

Copp was one of the founders of the Adventure Film Festival, which has appealed for help in the search on its website, www.adventurefilm.org.

Fog and landslides are impeding the search, the China Daily said, adding the three may have encountered an avalanche.

Mount Edgar is part of a series of steep and snowy ranges formed as the Tibet-Qinghai plateau pushed into the Sichuan basin.

Two other American climbers, Christine Boskoff and Charles Fowler, died in late 2006 while climbing further west in Sichuan.

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Ken Wills and Valerie Lee)