Mexico mounts multi-agency plan to recover mummified bodies frozen in glacier

In this Feb. 28, 2015 photo, a mummified frozen body sticks out from the snow in a glacier on the Pico de Orizaba volcano, Mexico's tallest peak. Officials said Friday March 6, 2015, that climbers found a second mummified body and that they may be the remains of climbers missing since a 1959 avalanche on the peak. They believe that a third body may be found because three were reported missing in the avalanche. (AP Photo/Israel Mijangos Q.) (The Associated Press)

The Pico de Orizaba volcano rises above the town of Tlachichuca in Mexico's Puebla state, Tuesday, March 10, 2015. Retired mountaineer Luis Espinosa, 78, a survivor of a 1959 expedition in which one climber died and three disappeared in an avalanche, is convinced that two mummified bodies discovered last week in a glacier on Mexico's tallest peak are the remains of his missing fellow climbers. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) (The Associated Press)

Retired mountaineer Luis Espinoza, 78, a surviving member of a 1959 avalanche on Pico de Orizaba, in which one climber died and three others disappeared, shows a newspaper he saved from November 1959 with the Spanish headline: "Death and Drama on Pico de Orizaba" during an interview in Tlachichuca in Mexico's Puebla state, Tuesday, March 10, 2015. Espinoza is convinced that two mummified bodies discovered last week in a glacier on Mexico's tallest peak are the remains of his missing fellow climbers. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) (The Associated Press)

Mexican officials say they will mount a joint state, federal and municipal effort to recover the mummified bodies of two climbers from Mexico's highest mountain.

The federal Interior Department said Tuesday that the multi-agency team will wait for clear weather to ascend the Pico de Orizaba volcano.

It warned volunteers not to risk their safety on the steeply-inclined mountain face where the two bodies were found last week.

The two bodies are encased in ice and snow near the peak of 18,406-foot (5,610-meter) volcano and appear decades old.

A survivor of a 1959 avalanche in which three fellow climbers disappeared says he's sure the bodies are those of his colleagues.

Luis Espinosa, 78, said Friday that the bodies' location matches where the climbers were lost.