Bodies of Canadian woman and Mexican man recovered after avalanche in Peruvian mountains

Rescuers recovering the bodies of a Canadian woman, Sandra Covone, and Daniel Navarro, her Mexican husband, after an avalanche on Tocllaraju, a 6,034-metre peak in the Andes mountains near Huaraz, Peru. Photo by HANDOUT /Peruvian National Police/AFP via

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Peruvian rescue teams have recovered the bodies of a Canadian woman, Sandra Covone, and Daniel Navarro, her Mexican husband, after they were engulfed in an avalanche on the summit of a 6,000-metre mountain in the Andes.

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“The bodies of Canadian Sandra Covone and Mexican Daniel Navarro, who were found in the area of the landslide, have been recovered and taken to the city of Huaraz,” Peruvian police said in a statement to Univision, an American Spanish-language news site.

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The mountaineering couple were killed by the avalanche at dawn on Wednesday, June 17, according to Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo. The avalanche occurred on Tocllaraju, one of the snow-covered peaks in the Cordillera Blanca mountains, which attract climbers from all over the world.

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The married couple were accustomed to mountain ascents, according to comments from the Peruvian Mountain Guides Association to Mundo Deportivo.

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Covone’s body was found on Thursday, while Navarro’s was recovered on Friday. The Mountain Guides Association said Navarro’s remains were located approximately 5,500 metres above sea level, in a difficult-to-access area.

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The bodies were taken to the morgue in the city of Huaraz for subsequent repatriation.

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National Post has reached out to Global Affairs for confirmation and further details.

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The avalanche also buried their guide, Floriano Caldua, but he managed to survive and raised the alarm via satellite phone. He was later rescued in stable condition by a mountain rescue team.

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Three rescue teams were organized to carry out the search and rescue operation. They successfully located the guide and woman’s body, while the search for the man’s remains was temporarily suspended due to weather conditions.

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News aggregator site, GN Youth News reported the couple was in Peru for an acclimatization route in the region. The site posted several photos of the couple.

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It reported that they posted updates from their climbs of Nevado Mateo on June 7 and Nevado Vallunaraju on June 9 as part of their training.

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