Her climb to nearly 20,700-foot summit of Mt. Ampato was the beginning of a journey to an afterlife with the gods more glorious than any she would have known in the deep Peruvian canyon she called home.
She was a teenager sacrificed to appease the mountain deities believed to control the weather that could bring famine or plenty to her Inca community. If a rockslide triggered by ash from a nearby volcano hadn't exposed her to the elements, the details of her sacrifice 500 years ago might have remained unknown.
But her discovery created other problems. Without mechanical refrigeration to replace the freezing temperatures of her Andes burial site, her well preserved body would quickly decompose.
After a harrowing evening descent down the mountainside in her discoverer's backpack, a 12-hour forced march atop a burro, and an overnight bus ride, the "Ampato Maiden" found a temporary home in an ordinary household freezer in Arequipa, Peru's Universidad Catolica de Santa Maria.
Her discoverer, American anthropologist Dr. Johan Reinhard, called her a "window" to the ancient culture of the Incas, but her long-term preservation demanded a refrigerated case whose temperature and humidity could be controlled precisely and reliably. Being able to display the mummy also would spark both public and scholarly interest.
The National Geographic Society, sponsor of Dr. Reinhard's explorations, asked Carrier if it could build and donate two identical cases that would allow the ice maiden to be displayed while preserving the delicate temperature and humidity balance she required.
Carrier engineers took less than three months to design and build a product that normally would have taken about two years. How? By modifying an existing product that already had proven its reliability in cooling thousands of hotel and motel rooms throughout the world.
When the "Ampato Maiden" was flown to Washington, D.C. and exhibited in National Geographic's Explorers Hall, more than 100,000 persons had the chance to learn more about an ancient culture whose sophistication and achievements still inspire awe.
But Carrier's preservation role continues as scientists from many fields stand in line for their own chance to gaze through their own "window" to the past.
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