Melting glaciers in the Alps uncover the remains of three mountaineers missing for decades

The retreat of glaciers in the Swiss and Austrian Alps has brought to light the remains of three mountaineers who had been missing since the early 1990s. The discoveries were made in two different areas, hundreds of kilometers apart and within a short period of time.

According to Corriere della Sera, the melting ice is bringing to the surface human remains that had been preserved in the ice for decades.

The first incident occurred on the Trift Glacier, in the Swiss canton of Valais, where the remains were discovered on July 26. They were then sent for examination to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Sion.

Test results confirmed that the remains belonged to two Belgian mountaineers, aged 39 and 41 at the time of their disappearance in 1992.

“A direct comparison of the DNA profiles officially showed that these were two mountaineers who had gone missing in the Weissmies area,” the competent authorities said.

Valais police have maintained a missing-persons file since 1925. It mainly includes cases involving people who disappeared in high-altitude mountain areas and along rivers.

This is not the only such case in the region. Last year, on the Ober Gabelhorn Glacier, also in the canton of Valais, the remains of a Swiss mountaineer who had gone missing in 1994 were found.

The second discovery was made in the Austrian Alps and involved an Italian mountaineer who had been reported missing in 1991.

The remains were found on June 21, in terrain covered with gravel and rocks on Vorderen Brandjochspitze, part of the Nordkette mountain range. They were transported to a hospital in Innsbruck, while identification took a long time.

DNA tests eventually confirmed that the remains belonged to a young man from South Tyrol, who was 22 when he disappeared in 1991. At the time, searches had been conducted in the Nordkette area, but without any result.

In recent years, the retreat of glaciers has led to the discovery of the bodies of people who had remained trapped in the ice for many years or decades.

Compared with 1850, Alpine glaciers have lost around half of their volume. Their shrinkage has accelerated significantly since the beginning of the 21st century.