Bodies of Belgian Climbers Found in Swiss Alps After 34 Years

The bodies of two Belgian climbers missing since 1992 have been discovered in the melting Trift Glacier in southern Switzerland, near the Italian border. Police from Wallis canton confirmed the findings on Wednesday.

On July 26, a hiker stumbled upon the remains and reported them to the authorities. The bodies were retrieved and taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Wallis Hospital in Sion for identification. A genetic comparison confirmed the bodies belonged to two mountaineers lost in the Weissmies region 34 years ago.

The climbers, aged 39 and 41 at the time of their disappearance, were added to a list kept by Wallis police, which tracks missing persons since 1925, mainly in mountainous and river areas.

“Due to the retreat of glaciers, the remains of people who disappeared in the mountains several decades ago are repeatedly revealed,” Wallis police stated.

Climate change impacts the glaciers differently, causing them to melt and expose bodies preserved for years or decades.

Several instances illustrate this phenomenon. Last year, remains of a Swiss mountaineer, missing since 1994, were discovered on a glacier in the Ober Gabelhorn mountain in Wallis. In Antarctica, in August 2025, a British researcher missing since 1959 was found near a receding glacier on King George Island. That same month, a missing climber from Pakistan was discovered after 28 years.

Other notable cases include the 2024 discovery of an American mountaineer lost for 22 years in Peru, and the 2023 recovery of a German climber’s remains, who vanished in 1986 in the Swiss Alps.

In 2017, Mont Blanc’s southern face yielded remains of hikers dating back to the 1980s or 1990s. Shortly after, a missing British mountaineer from 1971 was found in the Swiss Alps. That same year, a glacier in Switzerland unveiled the bodies of a couple missing since 1942.

These discoveries highlight the ongoing impact of climate change on the Alps and other regions across the globe.