Just about a thousand feet from the summit (at about 17,290 feet), hikers spotted a head and an arm protruding out of the side of the mountain. After some light digging, it was in fact two bodies, mummified and clinging together for warmth.

The hikers were on a mission to find the bodies of three missing hikers, who in 1959 experienced a devastating avalanche that separated them from the rest of their seven-man team.

One of the surviving hikers from that 1959 expedition, Luis Espinoza, analyzed the two bodies and confirmed that these were indeed those of his long lost friends, a reunion 56 years in the making.

The team hopes to find the remaining body of the missing three shortly, although recent weather conditions have made it very difficult.