Bodies of two hikers missing for decades found after Swiss glacier melts

What the report says

Swiss police say the bodies of two Belgian men who disappeared in the Alps in 1992 have been found on the Trift Glacier after retreating ice exposed them. According to BBC World News, a hiker discovered the remains on 26 July south of Lucerne, and later DNA testing confirmed the men’s identities. The two mountaineers were aged 39 and 41 when they vanished near Weissmies mountain, a peak in the Saas Valley that is popular with climbers.

Authorities in Valais said they carried out a recovery operation and transferred the bodies to a hospital in Sion for identification. The region keeps a long-running database of missing people, and police noted that many of those recorded disappeared in mountainous terrain or in water. The BBC report said this was not the first time melting Swiss glaciers have revealed long-missing remains.

The discovery comes amid rapid glacier loss in Switzerland and elsewhere. Scientists and monitoring bodies have linked the broader shrinkage of glaciers to rising temperatures, while Swiss data cited by the BBC showed substantial ice loss in recent years. The report says the latest finding adds another example of how climate-driven melting is changing alpine landscapes and uncovering evidence from past mountaineering accidents.