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 cold 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.
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.
"We know a lot of people are worried. There are many relatives
who could think that it's an easy task. But a rescue at an altitude
of 5,000 meters puts everybody's lives at risk," said Ricardo de la
Cruz, the federal civil protection director general.
The first body was discovered by chance by climbers on March 1.
After they reported seeing a head protruding from the glacier, an
official expedition was sent and discovered the second cadaver
embracing the first one.
- The avalanche -
Luis Espinosa, 78, is convinced that the bodies belong to his
missing friends and hopes the third one can also be found.
"It's them, without a doubt," the chemical engineer said,
showing a newspaper he saved from November 4, 1959, which describes
the "intense search" for Alberto Rodriguez, Manuel Campos and
expedition chief Enrique Garcia following an avalanche.
He said red cloth found on a body matches the color of Garcia's
sweater, worn 55 years ago.
The theory was backed up by Gerardo Reyes, who maintains a
registry of climbers on the north side of the volcano, where the
bodies were found.
He showed yellowing pages in which mountaineers have written
their names since the 1930s.
"We don't know of anybody else who has remained lost on the
mountain, neither foreigners nor Mexican nationals," Reyes told AFP
in his refuge for climbers.
But he acknowledged that some people go up the mountain without
registering and could have vanished without anybody knowing.
The mayor of nearby Chalchicomula, Juan Navarro, said he
received calls from people as far away as Spain and Germany asking
for information about the bodies.
- Spirit of the mummies -
The mystery has prompted the government to restrict access to
the volcano because some people have been caught trying to sneak up
to see the bodies.
"We have caught some climbers trying to go up. They were going
directly toward the mummies," a Chalchicomula town official told
AFP.
Alberto Rangel, one of the climbers who found the first body,
said his group tried to keep their discovery as quiet as possible
because "we know how daring climbers can be."
They were 200 meters from the summit, climbing a 50-degree
glacier, when they decided to come back down because some in the
six-person team were injured.
It was on the way back that they spotted something that looked
like a coconut on the snow. They deviated from their route to
investigate and discovered that it was a mummified human head.
After they took a picture, one of the climbers slipped and
tumbled 300 meters down the slope. He escaped with slight injuries.
Was it pure luck to get away so lightly?
"I'm not a believer or anything like that, but I don't know what
to think," Rangel said, chuckling at the "protection" provided by
the spirit of the mummies.