The remains of a climber who went missing nearly 31 years ago have been discovered on a Swiss glacier, police in the southern Wallis (Valais) region announced Wednesday. The finding definitively solves the disappearance of two mountaineers from 1994.
Climbers ascending the Ober Gabelhorn mountain made the initial discovery on October 15, spotting human remains and personal effects on the Ober Gabelhorn glacier. Police officers subsequently reached the site by helicopter to collect the evidence.
The remains were formally identified as a Swiss citizen born in 1969, who was one of two individuals who vanished in the area on November 4, 1994.
“One of the two individuals had already been found in 2000. The discovery of the second mountaineer’s remains has now fully solved the disappearance of the two men,” the cantonal police said in a statement.
The bodies of missing Alpinists occasionally surface on Switzerland’s glaciers, which are retreating due to climate change. Recent finds have included two human skeletons found on Wallis glaciers in 2022, a couple who disappeared in 1942 found in 2017, and the bones of three brothers who died in 1926 found in 2012.