The remains of two Belgian climbers who vanished 34 years ago have been discovered on a melting glacier in the Swiss Alps, according to reports.
A tourist hiking through southern Switzerland discovered the human remains as the ice field thawed. Subsequent genetic testing established that the bodies belong to two mountaineers from Belgium who disappeared in 1992, when they were aged 34 and 41, reported British newspaper The Sun.
The two men had planned to scale Mount Weissmies, a prominent peak reaching an altitude of 4,017 metres, before being caught in severe weather and failing to return. Rescue teams conducted search operations over several years following their disappearance, but were able to locate only a single backpack belonging to one of the expedition members.
Glacier retreat in the Pennine Alps
Mount Weissmies is situated in the Pennine Alps in the canton of Valais, southern Switzerland. The region features dramatic glaciated terrain and high peak elevations that attract thousands of mountaineers every year, though sudden severe weather and steep ice slopes frequently create hazardous conditions for climbing expeditions.
Rising global temperatures have accelerated glacier melt across the Swiss Alps in recent years. As ice fields recede to historic lows, frozen environments are increasingly revealing equipment, vintage climbing gear, and preserved human remains that had been entombed under snow and ice for decades.
Parallel discovery on Kazakh glacier
The recovery in Switzerland follows a similar event in Central Asia, where Belarusian tourists discovered the remains of a climber missing for 19 years in the mountains of Kazakhstan. That body was uncovered on the thawing surface of the Severtsov Glacier.
Forensic authorities in mountain regions rely on DNA testing databases to compare samples from recovered remains with records submitted by families of missing persons, enabling officials to confirm identities long after search operations have concluded.
