Police in Switzerland's Valais region have reported that the bodies of two Belgian citizens who went missing in the Alps in 1992 have been discovered due to glacier melting. This was reported by infohub.kz.
On 26 July, a hiker spotted two bodies on the Trift Glacier, south of the city of Lucerne. DNA analysis confirmed they were the mountaineers who had gone missing 34 years earlier near the Weissmies mountain. The deceased were 39 and 41 years old at the time.
In a statement, the police of the Valais region said that after the discovery, a recovery operation was organized and the bodies were transported to a hospital in the canton's capital, Sion, for identification.
The Weissmies mountain, which rises over 4,000 meters, is a popular mountaineering spot in the Saas Valley. Regional authorities maintain a database of missing persons dating back to 1925. According to police, most of those listed disappeared in mountains, rivers, or other bodies of water.
This is not the first time that glacier melting has exposed the remains of people who went missing decades ago. In 2023, human remains found on a glacier near Switzerland's famous Matterhorn were confirmed to belong to a German climber who had been missing since 1986.
According to data from the European Commission's monitoring body Copernicus, the rate of glacier shrinkage has been increasing globally since the 1990s, with a particularly accelerated pace since 2000. This process is especially noticeable in Switzerland. According to Glamos, after record ice loss in 2022 and 2023, glaciers further reduced by 3% in 2025.
The rise in global average temperatures has brought unseasonably warm weather to Switzerland's high altitudes, and the reduction in snow is threatening some ski resorts and competitions.