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Authorities in Switzerland’s Valais canton announced Wednesday that a retreating glacier in the Alps has yielded the remains of two Belgian mountaineers who went missing over three decades ago. A hiker discovered the bodies on the Trift Glacier on July 26 after melting ice uncovered them, prompting a recovery operation that led to forensic examination.
Forensic scientists at a hospital in Sion used DNA testing to confirm the remains belonged to two Belgian men who vanished in the Weissmies region during 1992. The climbers were 39 and 41 years old at the time of their disappearance, according to police records maintained by the canton’s authorities dating back to 1925.
Climate scientists have linked the accelerated melting of Switzerland’s glaciers to rising global temperatures in recent years. As ice continues to retreat at an increasing pace, bodies and artifacts preserved for decades beneath the frozen surface periodically emerge, officials said.
Similar discoveries have surfaced elsewhere in the Swiss Alps recently. In 2023, DNA analysis identified remains found on a glacier near the Matterhorn as belonging to a German mountaineer who disappeared in 1986, demonstrating the ongoing effects of glacial retreat on recovery efforts.
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