The climber has not been named, but DNA analysis confirmed the body was that of a German man who was 38 when he disappeared in 1986 (Picture: Reuters)
Human remains found on a melting Swiss glacier belong to a German climber who went missing in 1986.
In recent years, the retreat of Alpine glaciers due to climate change has seen such discoveries become an increasingly regular occurrence.
A group of climbers found the body while crossing the Theodul glacier above Zermatt, near the famous Matterhorn mountain, earlier this month.
They’re said to have seen a single hiking boot and set of crampons protruding from the ice.
Police have not named the missing man, but said DNA testing had confirmed his identity.
At the time of his disappearance, a huge search and rescue operation was launched in an attempt to locate him.
Climate change has drastically accelerated the retreat of Switzerland’s glaciers.
The Theodul glacier near Zermatt, Switzerland, where the man’s body was found (Picture: Getty)
This June proved the country’s hottest and driest on record, while last year experts were shocked to discover that Swiss glaciers have lost more than half of their volume since 1931.
If this shrinkage, already significantly faster than previously expected, continues at its present rate, scientists warn almost all Alpine glaciers will have disappeared by the end of the century.
It will mean discoveries such as that of the German climber’s remains, already now made almost every year, will become increasingly frequent.
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In 2022, the thawing Aletsch glacier, in the Bernese alps, revealed the wreckage of a plane that had crashed in 1968.
The body of British climber Jonathan Conville was also spotted in 2014, more than 35 years after he went missing, by a helicopter en-route to deliver supplies to a mountain refugee on the Matterhorn.
The following year, the remains of two Japanese climbers, missing since 1970, were also discovered.
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The climber has not been named, but DNA analysis confirmed the body was that of a German man who was 38 when he disappeared in 1986.
