Bodies of Belgian climbers who vanished in 1992 found in Swiss Alps

The bodies of two Belgian climbers who vanished in the Swiss Alps in 1992 have finally been identified after 34 years, according to police in Wallis canton, southern Switzerland. The men, aged 39 and 41 at the time of their disappearance, were discovered on the Trift Glacier, a region known for its retreating ice due to climate change.

On July 26, a hiker reported finding two bodies on the glacier near the Italian border. The climbers were identified through a direct comparison of their DNA profiles at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Sion. This discovery is part of a broader trend as climate change accelerates glacier melting, often exposing the remains of climbers who were once buried beneath the ice for years, or even decades.

The Wallis police have maintained a list of missing persons since 1925, with a particular focus on those lost in high mountains and rivers. In a similar incident last year, the bones of a Swiss mountaineer who had disappeared in 1994 were found on a glacier on the Ober Gabelhorn mountain, also in Wallis.