Officials in Peru have recovered the body of American mountain climber William Stampfl, who was buried in an avalanche 22 years ago while attempting to scale the 6,768-meter Mount Huascaran. Stampfl’s body was found in an area where freezing temperatures and ice had preserved his remains, clothing, and other possessions, including his driver’s license, which identified him as a resident of Chino, California, in San Bernardino County.
According to a police report provided to The Associated Press (AP), Stampfl traveled to the Andean region in 2002 with two friends, Matthew Richardson and Steve Erskine. The trio, known for their global mountain-climbing adventures, had previously summited Kilimanjaro, Rainier, Shasta, and Denali. While Erskine’s body was recovered shortly after the avalanche, Richardson’s body remains missing.
In a separate incident in Pakistan, officials reported on Tuesday that a team of six volunteer climbers, led by Pakistani mountaineer Abbas Ali, successfully recovered the body of 64-year-old Japanese climber Hiroshi Onishi. Onishi had recently died while descending Golden Peak, one of Pakistan’s tallest mountains, after reaching its summit. He was the third Japanese climber to die in Pakistan within a month.
Onishi fell into a crevasse during his descent, and adverse weather conditions prevented helicopters from retrieving his body. The volunteers undertook a six-day mission to locate and bring his body down from the mountain, AP reported.
Earlier, on June 13, two other Japanese climbers went missing on the same mountain. Ryuseki Hiraoka’s body was found two days later, but recovery efforts for Atsushi Taguchi’s body were unsuccessful, and he is presumed dead.