Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and director of GLAMOS, the Swiss Glaciological Monitoring Network, stands beside an 8-meter-high marker representing the annual ice melt on the tongue of the Rhone Glacier during a visit to the glacier in the Alps of the canton of Valais, Switzerland, in July. A melting glacier in another area of Valais revealed the bodies to two Belgian hikers who went missing in 1992. File Photo by Jean-Christophe Bott/EPA
Aug. 20 (UPI) — The remains of two Belgian hikers who went missing in 1992 were found in the area a melting glacier in Switzerland.
The bodies of the two men, who were 39 and 41 years old when they disappeared, were found on the Trift Glacier, police said Wednesday.
A hiker discovered the bodies on July 26 in the Valais canton in the Swiss Alps near the border with Italy.
The bodies were sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Valais Hospital in Sion, Switzerland, for identification.
“A direct comparison of DNA profiles has formally established that these are two mountaineers who went missing in the Weissmies region in 1992,” a police statement said. “Due to the retreat of the glaciers, it happens again and again that the mortal remains of people who disappeared in the mountains several decades ago come to light.”
The two men began their hike on Sept. 4, 1992, from the Weissmies hut to climb to the summit of the Weissmies mountain, 13,179 feet high. They made it to the Almagell hut, about 9,494 feet up. But they never reached the top due to poor weather conditions.
Teams searched the area several times after they were lost. They found a backpack, but not the hikers.
Valais police keep records of people reported missing in the mountains and rivers of the area dating back to 1925. As glaciers have begun to melt due to climate change, ice is exposing the bodies of climbers who went missing decades earlier.
Last year, the body of a Swiss climber who disappeared in 1994 was found on Ober Gabelhorn mountain in Valais.
