CHALCHICOMULA: A blanket of fresh snow has fallen on Mexico’s highest summit, preserving the mystery surrounding the discovery of two mummified bodies near the peak locked in a frozen embrace, frozen in time.
Could they be two of three climbers buried by an avalanche 55 years ago? For now, the answer will have to wait because fog conceals the top of Pico de Orizaba.
The storm has delayed an expedition to recover the cadavers discovered last week, raising concerns that the remains could be lost again on the 5,610-meter (18,400-foot) volcano, also known as Citlaltepetl.
Mission to Find Mummified Body at Mexico’s Highest Peak
As rescue teams await better weather to begin their expedition, it is adding to the anxiety of friends and families of climbers who vanished five decades ago.
“We fear that the cadavers will be covered up again… and that they are forgotten again,” Luis Espinosa, a veteran mountaineer who has searched for three friends missing since 1959, told AFP.
The slopes of the mountain, which straddles the states of Puebla and Veracruz, were white with snow on Friday while the summit was walled off by dense fog.
The snowfall forced the closure of the Mexico City-Puebla highway for several hours on Thursday.
And the expedition to recover the bodies, initially planned for this weekend, was indefinitely delayed as four meters (13 feet) of snow fell on the mountain.
