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The remains of two Belgian climbers who disappeared in the Swiss Alps 34 years ago have been recovered from the melting Trift Glacier, police said on Wednesday.
A hiker discovered the bodies on July 26 on the glacier in southern Switzerland, close to the Italian border, according to a statement by police in the Wallis canton.
The remains were taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Wallis Hospital in Sion 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,” police said.
The two Belgian men were 39 and 41 years old when they disappeared.
Wallis police keep records of people reported missing in the canton dating back to 1925, with many cases involving the high mountains and rivers.
The continued retreat of glaciers, accelerated by climate change, has increasingly exposed the remains of climbers who disappeared decades ago.
In another case last year, the remains of a Swiss mountaineer who went missing in 1994 were discovered on a glacier on the Ober Gabelhorn mountain, also in Wallis.
