The remains of a German mountain climber who disappeared in 1986 while hiking along a glacier near Switzerland’s iconic Matterhorn mountain have been recovered. Reuters reports climbers hiking along the Theodul Glacier in Zermatt made the grizzly discovery last month. The climber’s remains were taken to Valais Hospital for forensic analysis and a positive ID was established through DNA:
“DNA analysis enabled the identification of a mountain climber who had been missing since 1986. In September 1986, a German climber, who was 38 at the time, had been reported missing after not returning from a hike.”
The police have not issued additional information on the climber’s identity nor on the circumstances of his death.
This is not the first instance of bodies emerging from the Matterhorn in recent years due to glacial melt. In 2015, the remains of two young Japanese climbers who went missing on the Matterhorn in a 1970 snowstorm were found and their identities confirmed through the DNA testing of their relatives.
Time will tell if more remains are found amongst Switzerland’s glaciers as melting has been on the rise. Last year Switzerland’s glaciers measured their worst melt rate since they bang collecting data more than 100 years ago, losing 6% of their remaining volume (nearly double the previous record in 2003).
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