Melting ice on Swiss Alps reveals body of a climber missing since 1986

New York: Climbers hiking along the peaks of Swiss Alps discovered the body of another climber who went missing some 37 years ago, BBC reported.

They came upon the body on July 12 as the melting glacier along the Theodul Glacier in Zermatt in Switzerland revealed it.

The remains were recovered and dispatched to a forensic unit at Valais Hospital in the town of Sion for DNA analysis.

It is now found that the 38-year-old climber lost himself in the peaks way back in 1986.

‘DNA analysis enabled the identification of a mountain climber who had been missing since 1986. In September 1986, a German climber, who was 38 at the time, had been reported missing after not returning from a hike,’ the police reportedly said.

Police, however, did not give the identity of the climber and how he died in the wilderness.

However, police released photos of a long hiking boot and crampons, belonging to the climber, which were recovered from the ice.

‘The receding glaciers are increasingly bringing in mountaineers, whose disappearance was reported decades ago,’ the officials said.

The BBC reported that Theodul glacier like other areas across Alps started showing noticeable retreat over the years.

Each summer it reveals something or someone lost for decades, the report said.

Last year the wreckage of a plane that had gone missing in 1968 was discovered from the Aletsch glacier.

In 2015, the remains of two Japanese climbers, missing since 1970 following snowstorm, were found.

In 2014, retreating ice revealed the body of British climber Jonathan Conville who had gone missing in 1978 on the Matterhorn.