Body of German Mountain Climber Missing Since 1986 Found in a Melting Ice in the Swiss Alps; What Causes Glaciers To Recede?

Mountain climbing has become a popular outdoor activity, but it also comes with safety hazards. Every year, cases of various mountaineering accidents have been reported in different parts of the world. Some of these accidents lead to injuries or even death, while some are just reported to have gone missing.

In 1986, a German hiker went missing while climbing the Matterhorn mountain located between Switzerland and Italy. After 37 years, his remains were revealed by a melting glacier in the Swiss Alps.

Long-Lost Body Uncovered

On July 12, a group of mountaineers on the Theodul glacier in the southern part of Zermatt, Switzerland, came across human remains peeking out of the molten ice. The body was found alongside a hiking boot and spiked traction devices called crampons.

The discovered remains were sent for investigation to the forensic medicine unit at Valais Hospital in Sion. After conducting DNA analysis, the experts confirmed that the body belonged to a 38-year-old mountain climber who was reported missing in 1986.

This is not the first time that dead bodies have resurfaced from the glaciers in the Alps. During the recent years, melting ice has increasingly revealed a number of mountaineers who disappeared decades ago.

In 2017, preserved bodies of two persons were uncovered on the Tsanfleuron glacier in the western part of the Alps Mountain which were assumed to be buried since 1942. Last year, mountain climbers also discovered the wreckage of a plane crash which occurred in 1968 on the Chessjen glacier in Valais, revealing multiple corpses of unfortunate passengers.

Aside from human corpses, melting glaciers across Europe have also resurfaced ancient artifacts such as the Iron Age sandal and the 3,000-year-old shoe, which were both found in melting chunks of ice in a Norwegian mountain.

According to archeologist Lars Pilø who leads the Secrets of the Ice project, the discoveries from the melting glaciers are a tiny silver to global warming. He further described that the receding ice reveals the role of the glacier as an enormous deep freezer.

What Causes Glacier Recession?

The glaciers that exist in modern times are believed to be remnants of the last ice age. During the recent years, a significant portion of the world's glaciers are found to be shrinking in a phenomenon known as glacier recession.

Glaciers are said to be receding when their terminus or the point at which they end does not extend as far as it previously did. The glaciers retreat when their ice deposits melt much more quickly than the collected snowfall to form a new glacial ice.

The size of glaciers naturally gets smaller for the entirety of the planet's existence. However, the retreat and disappearance of mountain glaciers on a global scale is one of the most dramatic evidence of climate change, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

In Switzerland, glaciers play an important role in water security as they serve as storage for massive amounts of snowpack in the winter. This snowpack melts into rivers throughout the summer and supplies fresh water to the local communities. However, as the impact of climate change intensifies, the glaciers in the country continue to melt at alarming rates, with a 6% decrease in ice volume in 2022 alone.