The body of an American mountaineer has been discovered by a pair of fellow US climbers 22 years after he went missing following an avalanche in the Peruvian Andes. <\/p>\n
American brothers Ryan Cooper and Wesley Waren found the body of Bill Stampfl on June 27 on Mount Huascaran, <\/strong>according to Joseph Stampfl, Bill\u2019s son. <\/p>\n The climbers had been descending the mountain in Peru\u2019s Cordillera Blanca after an unsuccessful attempt to reach its 22,000 ft summit when they found the body, at about 16,500 ft. <\/p>\n He said the ice had preserved the body and its belongings and Stampfl\u2019s wedding ring, helmet, mountain climbing boots, and jacket were all intact. <\/p>\n The brothers managed to identify Stampfl by finding a bag attached to his body, inside which they found his identification card, a camera, passport, wallet, and glasses \u2013 all of which were also intact, Cooper explained. <\/p>\n \u201cSomeone loved him and someone wanted him to come home,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cAs soon as I found out he was an American climber I knew we had a responsibility to track down the family and give them the news,\u201d Cooper said. <\/p>\n His body was retrieved and brought down the mountain on July 5 by the Peruvian Mountain Rescue Association and Peruvian National Police after coordination with Cooper and Stampfl\u2019s family. <\/p>\n His body was taken to a morgue in the town of Yungay for an autopsy, Peru\u2019s National Police posted on X on Tuesday. <\/p>\n Cooper, a native of Las Vegas, Nevada, called his wife and informed her of his discovery the same day he came across Stampfl\u2019s body. He asked her for help in finding Stampfl\u2019s family, as he was still on Mount Huascaran with limited cellular service. <\/p>\n After much online research, Cooper\u2019s wife was able to locate Joseph and called him on June 29. <\/p>\n \u201cI told him I know the location of his dad. I told him about the ring and personal items,\u201d Cooper said. <\/p>\n His motive was to help the family find closure, Cooper explained. <\/p>\n With \u201cno body, there\u2019s no way to find peace with that,\u201d Cooper said. <\/p>\n Cooper also spoke to Jennifer and Stampfl\u2019s wife Janet <\/strong>on the phone before sending photos of Stampfl\u2019s ID and other belongings to the family. <\/p>\n After so many years, the news came as an emotional shock to Stampfl\u2019s family. <\/p>\n \u201cThere is no preparation for having your husband killed instantaneously,\u201d Janet said, adding that she never thought her husband\u2019s body would be discovered. \u201cIt\u2019s an answer to so many prayers by so many people.\u201d <\/p>\n Janet said her husband loved climbing mountains. \u201cHe enjoyed it so much. He said he always felt closest to God when he got to the top of the mountain,\u201d Janet said. <\/p>\n \u201cAfter 22 years\u2026I was a little shocked, it took me a while to process everything,\u201d Joseph said, adding \u201cnow it\u2019s time to bring him home hopefully.\u201d <\/p>\n Following an autopsy in Yungay, Stampfl\u2019s body was transferred to the city of Juarez, Joseph explained. Stampfl will be taken to a funeral home in Lima where he will be cremated, and the ashes will be sent to the family in the United States. <\/p>\n While Cooper is grateful to have finally been able to bring closure to the Stampfl family, the discovery was also tinged with sadness. <\/p>\n He had hoped that Richardson\u2019s body might have been attached to Stampfl by a rope, but that was not the case and \u201che\u2019s still missing as of today.\u201d <\/p>\n He also fears that global warming may have played a role in his discovery, by thawing the ice on what is considered the world\u2019s highest tropical mountain range. <\/p>\n \u201cHe was fully exposed and not in ice anymore. The thawing process happened,\u201d Cooper said. <\/p>\n Since the 1950s, almost all of the world\u2019s glaciers have been retreating, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. On average, the glaciers in the Andean region \u2013 Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru \u2013 have lost over 50 per cent of their coverage since the 1960s. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Andes is deteriorating more than any other mountain range in the region,\u201d Cooper said, adding that the changing conditions were part of what had prevented him from summiting Mount Huascaran. <\/p>\n \u201cGlaciers are melting away, the landscape has changed. It poses a dangerous landscape now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The body of an American mountaineer has been discovered by a pair of fellow US climbers 22 years after he went missing following an avalanche in the Peruvian Andes. American brothers Ryan Cooper and Wesley Waren found the body of Bill Stampfl on June 27 on Mount Huascaran, according to Joseph Stampfl, Bill\u2019s son. The climbers had been <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Finding Bill\u2019s family<\/h2>\n
\u2018My heart just sank\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018A dangerous landscape\u2019<\/h2>\n