LIMA, Peru (AP) — Twenty-two years ago, an avalanche buried American climber Bill Stampfl as he climbed one of the highest peaks in the Andes.
His family knew there was little hope of finding him alive, or even recovering his body, from the thick snowfields and ice caps that cover the 6,700-metre (22,000-foot) Huascaran peak.
But in June, Stampfl’s son received a call from a stranger who said he had discovered the climber’s frozen, nearly intact body while making his own ascent of Huascaran.
“It was really out of the box. You talk about my dad, you think about him all the time,” Joseph Stampfl said. “You never think you’re going to get a call.”
He then shared the news with his family.
“It’s a shock,” said Jennifer Stampfl, the climber’s daughter. “When you get a phone call saying he’s been found, it hits you. At first, you don’t know exactly how to feel.”
On Tuesday, Peruvian police announced that they had found Stampfl’s body on the mountain where he had been buried by the 2002 avalanche, while the 58-year-old was climbing with two friends who had also been killed.
A group of police and mountain guides placed Stampfl’s body on a stretcher, covered it with an orange tarp and slowly lowered it down the icy mountain. The body was found at an altitude of 5,200 metres, about a nine-hour walk from one of the camps where climbers stop before tackling Huascaran’s steep summit.
Jennifer Stampfl said the family plans to move the body to a funeral home in Lima, Peru’s capital, where he can be cremated and his ashes repatriated.
“For 22 years we said, ‘This is how it is. Dad is part of the mountain and he’s never coming home,'” she said.
Police said Stampfl’s body and clothing were preserved by ice and freezing temperatures. His driver’s license was found in a hip pouch. He was a resident of Chino, San Bernardino County, California.
Efforts to recover Stampfl’s body began last week, after an American climber discovered the frozen body as he headed to the summit of Huascaran. The climber opened the pouch and read the name on the driver’s license. He called Stampfl’s relatives, who then contacted local mountain guides.
Joseph Stampfl said they worked with a Peruvian mountain rescue association to recover his father’s body, which was about 915 to 1,200 meters (3,000 to 4,000 feet) below where he and his two friends are believed to have been killed.
“He wasn’t trapped in the ice anymore,” the son said. “He still had his boots on.”
A team of 13 climbers took part in the recovery operation: five officers from an elite police unit and eight mountain guides who work for Grupo Alpamayo, a local tour operator that takes climbers to Huascaran and other Andean peaks.
Eric Raul Albino, director of Grupo Alpamayo, said he was hired by Stampfl’s family to recover the body.
Lenin Alvardo, one of the officers involved in the recovery operation, said Stampfl’s clothes were still largely intact. The hip bag containing his driver’s license also contained a pair of sunglasses, a camera, a dictaphone and two decaying $20 bills. A gold wedding ring was still on his left hand.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Alvarado said.
Huascaran is the highest peak in Peru. Hundreds of climbers visit the mountain each year with local guides, and it usually takes them about a week to reach the summit.
However, climate change has affected Huascarán and the surrounding peaks over 5,000 meters, known as the Cordillera Blanca. According to official figures, the Cordillera Blanca has lost 27% of its ice cap in the last five decades.
Stampfl was with friends Matthew Richardson and Steve Erskine attempting to climb Huascaran in 2002. They had traveled the world to climb difficult mountains and had summited Kilimanjaro, Rainier, Shasta and Denali, according to a Los Angeles Times report at the time.
Erskine’s body was found shortly after the avalanche, but Richardson’s remains missing.
Jennifer Stampfl said a memorial plaque for the three friends has been placed on the summit of Mount Baldy in Southern California, where the trio trained for their expeditions. She added that they may return to the site with her father’s remains.
Janet Stampfl-Raymer, Stampfl’s wife, said that when her husband wasn’t working as a civil engineer, he enjoyed being a mountain climber.
“He was a kind man. He was humble. He loved God and he loved the mountains,” she said.
“We all loved my husband dearly. He was one of a kind,” she said. “We are so grateful to be able to bring his body home to rest in peace.”
Stampfl planned his mountain expeditions carefully, his daughter said. She also said he was very humble and did not like to draw attention to himself.
“The fact that he’s in the news shows that he’s not my father at all,” she said.
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Taxin reported from Santa Ana, California.
News Source : apnews.com
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