The remains of a man discovered near an Austrian glacier have been identified as those of a German mountaineer who died almost 60 years ago, local police announced Thursday.
Climate change accelerated the melting of glaciers, the retreat of the ice freeing the bodies of climbers that it had held for years, even decades.
The German’s bones, including part of a leg, were discovered last year in the western Austrian province of Tyrol.
He was reported missing in March 1967 after falling into a crevasse while crossing the Wasserfallferner glacier on skis with a companion, local police told AFP.
Search teams were unable to recover him at that time from the deep crevasse and bad weather forced them to abort the rescue mission.
In August 2024, a local resident found the bones about 2,300 feet below the glacier in the Rotmoostal valley and alerted authorities.
Martin Zwick/REDA/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
After carrying out extensive DNA analyzes of the human remains, forensic experts were able to “attribute them to a 30-year-old German from the Baden-Württemberg region”, who had been missing since 1967, police said.
“In recent years, the retreat of the glaciers of the Alps, in this case that of the Wasserfallferner, has allowed the discovery of the remains of mountaineers who have sometimes disappeared for a long time,” police spokesperson Erwin told AFP. Voegele.
“Such discoveries have also taken place in neighboring Switzerland and Italy, but it is rare that the remains can be identified almost 60 years after the accident,” Voegele added.
Austria risks becoming largely “ice-free” within 45 years, the country’s Alpine Club warned last year, reporting that by 2023 two glaciers will have shrunk by more than 100 meters.
Melting glaciers reveal remains of hikers and climbers
As glaciers increasingly melt and retreat, which many scientists attribute to global warming, discoveries of remains of hikers, skiers and other mountaineers who went missing decades ago have increased.
Last July, the preserved body of American mountaineer William Stampfl – who disappeared more than twenty years ago while climbing a snow-capped peak in Peru – was find after being exposed to melting ice induced by climate change. He was reported missing in 2022 when an avalanche buried his climbing group on Huascaran Mountain, which is more than 22,000 feet above sea level.
In September 2023, the remains of a German mountaineer who disappeared in 1971 were found. discovered on a Swiss glacier.Two months earlier, the remains of another German climber who had disappeared in 1986 had also been found. discovered in Switzerland. Police have not identified this climber, but posted a photo of a hiking boot and equipment protruding from the snow that apparently belonged to the missing man.
In August 2017, Italian mountain rescue teams recovered the remains of hikers on a glacier on the south face of Mont Blanc probably dating from the 1980s or 1990s.
The previous month, a retreating glacier in Switzerland had revealed the bodies of a frozen couple who disappeared in 1942.