Bodies of US climbers found in Peru
Searchers have found the bodies of US climbers Gil Weiss and Ben Horne, who went missing after attempting to summit Peru's glacier-capped Palcaraju peak in mid-July.
Rescue coordinator Ted Alexander said his three-man team found the bodies of 29-year-old Weiss and 32-year-old Horne on Palcaraju in the Cordillera Blanca range on Saturday, according to the Associated Press.
Alexander said the pair died in a fall off a ridge after summiting the 20,000-foot west peak, reported News.com.au. He estimated the men fell almost 1,000 feet.
More from GlobalPost: 2 US climbers missing on Peru peak
Their bodies would not be too difficult to remove from the mountain, Alexander said, and the two men — Weiss, from Queens, New York and Horne, of Annandale, Virginia — would hopefully be heading home by Sunday, according to the AP.
Weiss and Horne had not been heard from since they set off on their climb in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range on July 11, reported the San Diego Union-Tribune. Searchers found the pair's tent at 16,700 feet on Thursday along with tracks coming off the summit and evidence of an avalanche. An eight-man team from Peru's high-mountain rescue police unit was also involved in the search for the two climbers.
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