The remains of a climber who went missing 37 years ago have been discovered in a thawing glacier near the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps, authorities in Switzerland said Thursday.
Mountaineers hiking the Theodul Glacier in the Valais canton, Zermatt, in the southern Alps, stumbled upon human remains and pieces of equipment on July 12. A photo released by the Valais Cantonal Police shows a boot with red laces and a crampon unearthed by glacial melting.
The discovery was transported to the Valais Hospital for forensic identification and further examination. DNA analysis linked the remains to a German climber who disappeared in September 1986. Officials said the mountaineer was 38 years old when he was reported missing.
Police did not provide additional information about the climber's identity or cause of death.
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Swiss police said receding glaciers have led to the discovery of other long-lost mountaineers and climbers whose disappearances were reported decades ago.
In 2015, the remains of two Japanese climbers who went missing in a snowstorm in 1970 were found at the foot of the Matterhorn due to shrinking glaciers, the New York Times reported. More recently, three bodies of climbers who police said died in the 1990s were discovered in 2017 in Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe.
Temperatures in the Alps are warming at 0.3 degrees Celsius, twice as fast as the global average. Last year, Swiss glaciers recorded their worst melt rate in over 100 years, losing 6% of their remaining volume, according to glacier monitoring portal GLAMOS. The Alps' glaciers could face a loss of more than 80% of their current mass by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, Reuters reported.
