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.