The bodies of two Belgian men who vanished in the Swiss Alps in 1992 have been discovered after melting ice exposed their remains, authorities announced. A hiker found the bodies on July 26 on the Trift Glacier, south of Lucerne, according to police.
DNA analysis later confirmed the identities of the two mountaineers, who were 39 and 41 years old at the time of their disappearance. They went missing near the Weissmies mountain, a popular mountaineering destination in the Saas Valley that peaks at over 4,000 meters.
Officials in Switzerland's Valais region organized a recovery operation for the bodies, which were transferred to a hospital in Sion for identification. This is not the first time glacier melt has revealed remains of individuals missing for decades. In 2023, human remains found on a glacier near the Matterhorn were identified as a German climber who had been missing since 1986.
Scientists attribute the rapid retreat of Switzerland's glaciers to climate change. According to Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (Glamos), Swiss glaciers shrunk by a quarter between 2015 and 2025. Data from Glamos indicated a further 3% reduction in glacier volume across 2025, following record ice loss in 2022 and 2023. The European Commission's monitoring body, Copernicus, noted that the rate of glacier shrinkage has been increasing globally since the 1990s, with an accelerated rate since 2000. The warming trend has led to unseasonably warm weather at higher altitudes in Switzerland, impacting ski resorts and competitions due to reduced snow cover.