Bodies of hikers missing since 1992 found under melting Swiss glacier
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Beligan hikers missing since 1992 have been found over three decades later.
Two hikers went missing on a Swiss glacier in 1992, and their bodies have now been found on a mountain. The police identified them as Belgians who died at the ages of 39 and 41.
The bodies of two Belgian hikers who went missing in the Swiss Alps over three decades ago have been found. The bodies were revealed after the glaciers retreated because of climate change. In recent years, Switzerland's glaciers have been melting at an increasing rate. This has led to the emergence of remains of people who went missing in the region decades ago. Police in the southwestern Valais region have a database of everyone who vanished over the last century.
The human remains were found by a hiker last month as the Trift glacier south of the city of Lucerne melted. The regional government said on Wednesday that this led them to start an operation to recover the remains. DNA tests identified them as two Belgian hikers, who died at the ages of 39 and 41. They went missing near the Weissmies mountain in 1992.
Global warming is melting glaciers
As the climate warms and glaciers melt, more and more such discoveries are being made. Three years ago, a body was found on a Swiss glacier near the Matterhorn. He was identified as a German mountaineer who disappeared in 1986.
Global warming and melting glaciers in Switzerland
Swiss glaciers are melting at an accelerated rate and have lost 24 per cent of their total volume between 2015 and 2025. According to data from GLAMOS (Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland), warming in the Swiss Alps is twice the global average rate. Swiss glaciers lost 10 per cent of their total ice mass in 2022 and 2023. This is equal to all the ice lost between 1960 and 1990.
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Several small glaciers have already vanished, with more than 1,000 of them completely gone. This year, active melting was reported at high altitudes because of the summer heatwave. Scientists estimate that even if humans are successful in reducing carbon emissions significantly, at least two-thirds of Alpine glacier volume will disappear by 2100.
