William Stampfl's body was preserved in cold temperatures and was found thanks to global warming.
In 2002, three friends – William Stampfl, Matthew Richardson and Steve Erskine attempted to climb Mount Huascaran in Peru. However, during the ascent, the climbers were covered by an avalanche. Police in the Ancash region discovered the body of William Stumpfl 22 years after the tragedy – on Friday, July 6, 2024, near a camp at an altitude of 5200 meters above sea level.
The Guardian writes about this.
Erskine's body was found shortly after the avalanche, but the body of the third climber, Matthew Richardson, has still not been found.
Mount Huascaran in the Andes, at 6,768 metres (22,500 ft), is the highest point in Peru and the fourth highest peak in South America. Hundreds of climbers accompanied by local guides visit Huascaran every year, taking about a week to reach the summit.
Police said Stampfl's body, clothing and equipment were well preserved in the ice. He was also easy to identify because he had a driver's license and passport in his pockets. Stampfl's body was brought down the mountain over the weekend by guides and police officers and placed in a morgue in the city of Huaraz.
As global warming causes glaciers around the world to melt and retreat, authorities are increasingly reporting the discovery of human remains. The bodies of dead climbers are being found after snow and ice melt and retreat further toward the mountain tops. The glacier mass in the Peruvian Andes has been shrinking for about 10 years.
“What was buried many years ago is coming to the surface,” said Edson Ramirez, a park ranger and risk assessor at Huascaran National Park.
Peru has about 68% of the world's tropical glaciers, which are among the most vulnerable ice sheets on the planet due to global warming. A November report from the Peruvian government showed that the country had lost 56% of its tropical glaciers in the last 60 years.
Many of these glaciers are located in Peru's Cordillera Blanca, where Huascaran and other famous mountains attract thousands of climbers every year. In May, the body of an Israeli tourist was found there, almost a month after he disappeared.
Recall that in Switzerland, glaciers melting due to climate change are revealing 50-year-old secrets. In August 2022, tourists discovered unidentified human remains and a crashed plane in the mountains.
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