In the middle of the , a pair of hikers in the mountains above Zermatt, Switzerland, discovered the body of a climber who had disappeared decades before. The human remains had been entombed in ice just a short distance from an international ski resort, and near the route up the famed Matterhorn. The discovery occurred on July 12.
Local authorities have released few details about the climber beyond the basic timeline of his disappearance. 鈥淚n September 1986, a German climber, who was 38 at the time, had been reported missing after not returning from a hike,鈥 the local police department . His remains were identified using DNA tests at a local hospital, the release said, but authorities have not released the climber鈥檚 identity.
Police also released a photo showing a pair of crampons, a single black leather boot, a gray piece of fabric, and a length of rope resting on ice.
How the climber lost his life is still unclear. The mountains surrounding Zermatt are popular and infamously deadly, and several hundred people have died while attempting the Matterhorn. In 2018 alone, on the mountain.
The location of the body gives few clues about his cause of death. He was found along the Theodul Glacier, rather than at the base of a notorious Matterhorn route. The upper portion of the glacier is more than 12,000 feet above sea level, and it sits adjacent to Zermatt Ski Resort鈥攑arts are served by multiple chairlifts. In the summer, the glacier is popular with hikers, who regularly traverse it in short-sleeve shirts. In 1965, on a bicycle. A gondola line, constructed in the 1970s, provides a panoramic view of the ice flow on its way to a luxury viewing lodge, complete with a restaurant and a theater.
Despite its proximity to buildings and chairlifts, the area presents dangers for outdoor recreation users鈥攕torms often descend on the area and trap hikers on the snow.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter really how tame the glacier is,鈥 says Dave Miller, owner of guiding company Alpine International Guides. 鈥淵ou get caught in one of those alpine storms, and even if you鈥檙e close to the ski resort, that can do you in right there. You can literally be a half mile from the ski resort and not be able to find it.鈥
The location where the climber was discovered isn鈥檛 necessarily where he disappeared. Glaciers slowly flow downhill, and can carry bodies miles from their original locations. And as climate change melts the ice, that flow accelerates.
In recent years, the retreating glaciers across the Alps have revealed ancient relics, archaeological discoveries, and yes, human remains. In 2017, a French climber found three bodies on the Italian side of Mont Blanc鈥攁uthorities believe the three had died two decades earlier. That year a ski resort worker in Zermatt found the bodies of a couple who disappeared in 1942 while herding cattle in their mountain pasture.
Last summer, multiple hikers in Switzerland made similarly gruesome discoveries. In July, hikers found a mummified body clad in ; in August, a French climber found in the retreating Chessjen Glacier in Valais, Switzerland. Then, on August 4, debris from a plane crash on the Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland鈥檚 Bermese Alps. The plane, a Piper Cherokee, had crashed on June 30, 1968.
The Theodul Glacier has also from bygone eras. In 1985, archaeologists found coins, a dagger, and remains of a human thigh bone amid the retreating ice. Subsequent digs in the area unearthed the body of a merchant who had perished聽during a crossing in the 1600s, wearing a thin pair of leather shoes.
The melting glaciers around Zermatt are bound to reveal more finds like this. According to the news site Swissinfo.ch, in the mountains of Valais Canton, where Zermatt sits.
That a body could be found so close to an international ski resort illustrates how dramatically the Alps are changing due to climate change. More than a quarter of Theodul Glacier has melted over the last 50 years. That melt has been dramatic enough to between Italy and Switzerland鈥擳heodul Glacier sits on a ridge between the two countries, and its retreat has slowly pushed an Italian alpine refuge onto Swiss territory.
This past winter dealt an especially bad blow to the Alps鈥 glaciers: temperatures in Switzerland rose above , and of the country鈥檚 glacier mass disappeared in 2022. More areas that were once covered in ice are now exposed鈥攁nd items that were stuck in the glacier are also thawing out. So common are these discoveries that the Valais Canton produced a smartphone app, called Icewatcher, which allows hikers to photograph tools, wood, or even human remains that they find on the edge of the ice, and alert the local archaeological department.