Friday, May 6, 2016

Mummies found frozen could be climbers who went missing 55 years ago



TWO mummified bodies found entombed in ice at Mexico's highest mountain could be two climbers from a group who went missing there in 1959.

From Sunday Express; The eerie remains emerged when a mummified skull was found about 1,000 meters from the summit if Pico de Orizaba. A second body was then found nearby.


Initially, only a head and a hand could be seen sticking out of the snow and ice. But on Thursday, they excavated further and discovered the hand actually belonged to another body that appeared to be embracing the first corpse.

The frozen bodies, one with clenched fists and a horrified expression, could be two of three Mexicans who disappeared after an avalanche struck 55 years ago, according to local officials. But the grim discovery has prompted families in Spain and Germany, whose loved ones were also lost on the mouton to contact mountain rangers in the hope they have finally found their relatives' remains.


The skull and hand were seen poking out of a glacier 5,270 meters up the volcano by climbers, then 12 local civil protection mountaineers who carried out a search discovered the second body.

Juan Navarro, mayor of nearest town, Chalchicomula de Sesma, said that clothing found on the mummies will help identify them, but DNA tests will take place.

But due to bad weather conditions the bodies have not yet been able to be removed from the mountainside.

The corpses appeared partly mummified, retaining skin and muscle tissue and some clothing. There have been several instances of bodies turning up in glaciers decades after a person disappeared as freezing can preserves bodies in a state similar to mummification.

Town officials are trying to see if they can use a government helicopter to bring the corpses down, but first they must be dug out from a very steep mountain slope.



Navarro said: “They are practically planted in concrete,” but the idea is to get them out."

The local newspaper El Universal interviewed Luis Espinoza, 78, a surviving member of that 1959 expedition.

He said only three others survived, and three disappeared. He said he had been caught in the same avalanche but was able to dig himself out. Based on photos of the first body, Espinoza said he believed it to be one of the members of his group of climbers.

You can see the video here.


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