Iima, Peru — Twenty-two years ago, an avalanche buried American climber William 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 of recovering his corpse from the thick snowfields and layers of frigid ice that cover the 6,700-meter-high Huascaran Peak.
But in June, Stampfl’s daughter received a call from a stranger who said he had found the climber’s frozen, nearly intact body as he climbed Huascaran.
“It was a shock,” said Jennifer Stampfl, 53. “When you get that phone call that he’s been found, your heart sinks. You don’t know exactly how to feel at first.”
On Tuesday, police in Peru said they had recovered Stampfl’s body from the mountain where he was buried by the avalanche in 2002, when the 58-year-old was climbing with two friends who also died.
A group of police officers and mountain guides placed Stampfl’s body on a stretcher, covered it with an orange tarp and slowly carried it down the mountain. The body was found at an altitude of 5,200 meters (17,060 feet), about a nine-hour walk from one of the camps where climbers stop when they reach the steep summit of Huascaran.
Jennifer Stampfl said the family plans to transfer the body to a funeral home in Peru’s capital, Lima, where it can be cremated and its ashes repatriated.
“For 22 years, we just put it in our heads, ‘This is the way it is. Dad is part of the mountain and will never come home,’” she said.
Police said Stampfl’s body and clothing were preserved by ice and freezing temperatures. His driver’s license was found inside a bag. It says he lived in Chino, San Bernardino County, California.
The effort to recover Stampfl’s remains began last week after an American climber found her frozen body while heading to the summit of Huascaran. The climber opened his bag and read the name on his driver’s license. He called Stampfl’s relatives, who then contacted local mountain guides.
A team of 13 mountaineers participated 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 peaks in the Andes.
Eric Raul Albino, director of Grupo Alpamayo, said he was hired by Stampfl’s family to recover the body.
Lenin Alvardo, one of the police officers who participated in the recovery operation, said that Stampfl’s clothes were still practically intact. The bag containing his driver’s license also contained a pair of sunglasses, a camera, a voice recorder and two decomposed $20 bills. A gold wedding ring was still on his left hand.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Alvarado said.
Huascaran is the highest peak in Peru. Hundreds of climbers visit the mountain every year with local guides and it typically takes about a week to reach the summit.
However, climate change has affected Huascaran and the surrounding peaks over 5,000 meters, known as the Cordillera Blanca. According to official data, the Cordillera Blanca has lost 27% of its ice layer in the last five decades.
Stampfl was with friends Matthew Richardson and Steve Erskine attempting to climb Huascaran in 2002. They traveled the world to climb challenging mountains and reached the peaks of Kilimanjaro, Rainier, Shasta and Denali, according to a Los Angeles Times report on era. .
Erskine’s body was found shortly after the avalanche, but Richardson’s corpse is still missing.
Jennifer Stampfl said a plaque in memory of the three friends was placed on the summit of Mount Baldy in Southern California, where the trio trained for their expeditions. She said they can return to the site with her father’s remains.
Stampfl was a civil engineer who carefully planned his mountaineering expeditions, his daughter said. He was also very humble and didn’t like to draw attention to himself.
“The fact that he’s in the news isn’t my father,” Stampfl said.
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Taxin reported from Santa Ana, California.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
