Remains of man who disappeared 31 years ago found by climbers on a glacier in Switzerland

The remains of a climber who went missing in 1994 have been found in a Swiss glacier, police said.

Climbers ascending the Ober Gabelhorn mountain discovered human remains on October 15, the cantonal police of the southern Wallis region said in a statement. After receiving the report from the mountaineers, the agents arrived at the scene by helicopter to collect the remains and personal effects from the Ober Gabelhorn glacier.

According to police, the person was a Swiss citizen born in 1969.

Two climbers disappeared in the area on November 4, 1994. One of the individuals was found in 2000, police said, adding that the discovery of the remains of the second climber solves the mystery of his disappearance.

The ascent of the 4,000-meter-high Ober Gabelhorn is highly appreciated by experienced mountaineers.

Bodies exposed by the melting of glaciers in recent years

Rising global temperatures linked to human-caused climate change are causing Glaciers will melt quickly.. As glaciers increasingly melt and retreat around the world, there has been an increase in discoveries of remains of hikers, skiers and other climbers who went missing decades ago.

In August, the remains of a British researcher that disappeared in 1959 in Antarctica were discovered among rocks near a retreating glacier on King George Island, located off the Antarctic Peninsula. Almost at the same time, a the body of the missing man It was discovered in a melting glacier in Pakistan, 28 years after it disappeared.

In July 2024, the preserved body of a American mountaineer was found 22 years after he disappeared while climbing a snowy peak in Peru. A month before that, Five frozen bodies were recovered. of Mount Everest, including one that was just skeletal remains, as part of Nepal’s mountain-clearing campaign on Everest and the adjacent peaks Lhotse and Nuptse.

In 2023, the remains of a German climber disappeared in 1986 were recovered from a glacier in the Swiss Alps.

In 2017, Italian mountain rescue teams recovered the remains of the hikers on a glacier on the south face of Mont Blanc that probably dates back to the 1980s or 1990s. Just a few weeks later, the remains of a climber discovered in the Swiss Alps were identified as a British mountaineer who disappeared in 1971.

That same year, a shrinking glacier in Switzerland revealed the bodies of a frozen couple who disappeared in 1942. Police told local media that their bodies were discovered near a ski lift on the glacier by an employee of an adventure resort company.

In 2016, the bodies of a renowned mountaineer and expedition cameraman who were buried in an avalanche in the Himalayas in 1999 were found Partially melting from a glacier.