The bodies of two Belgian climbers who disappeared in the Swiss Alps 34 years ago have been found, freed from the melting Trift Glacier, police said on Wednesday.
On July 26, a hiker reported finding two bodies on the glacier in southern Switzerland, near the Italian border, the regional police in Wallis canton said in a statement.
The bodies had been taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Wallis Hospital in Sion for identification.
"A direct comparison of DNA profiles has formally established that these are two mountaineers who went missing in the Weissmies region in 1992," the statement said.
The two Belgian men were aged 39 and 41 when they disappeared.
They set out on the morning of September 4 1992, from the Weissmies Hut, at an altitude of 2,726 metres, bound for the Almageller Hut. Their planned route took them over the summit of the Weissmies, a 4,017-metre mountain. They encountered extremely poor weather conditions on the way and never reached their destination.
Several search operations were carried out in the months that followed. A climbing rucksack was found, but the two men themselves remained missing.
Wallis police maintain a list of missing persons dating back to 1925, primarily in high mountains and rivers.
Climate change has reportedly accelerated the melting of glaciers, with the retreating ice releasing bodies of climbers it has held for years, often decades.
Last year, the bones of a Swiss mountaineer who disappeared in 1994 were found on a glacier on the Ober Gabelhorn mountain, also in Wallis.
