31-Year Mystery Solved: Remains Found on Swiss Glacier Identified as Missing Mountaineer

Swiss authorities identify climber found on Ober Gabelhorn glacier

Swiss officials announced that human remains discovered on Oct. 15 on the Obergabelhorn glacier above Zinal have been positively identified as a mountaineer who vanished in November 1994.

Discovery and response: A group of climbers found bones and personal effects on the glacier, and the Valais cantonal police were flown to the site by helicopter to secure the scene. The public prosecutor’s office opened an inquiry and forensic investigators carried out examinations and comparisons with missing-person records, leading to a confirmed identification.

Victim details: Authorities said the remains belong to a Swiss man born in 1969. They did not release additional personal details. Officials noted that two mountaineers disappeared in the same area in November 1994; the remains of one were recovered and identified in 2000, and the newly found remains complete the account of that disappearance.

Context — melting glaciers and recovered remains: The Ober Gabelhorn, a peak in Switzerland’s Pennine Alps that rises to more than 13,000 feet, sits above rapidly changing glacial terrain. Experts say accelerated glacier melt related to rising global temperatures has exposed long-hidden human remains, contributing to several recent identifications of hikers, climbers and researchers who vanished decades ago.

Similar cases this year include the British Antarctic Survey’s confirmation of the remains of Dennis “Tink” Bell, a 25-year-old researcher who died on a glacier near the Antarctic Peninsula in July 1959, and a well-preserved body found in Pakistan’s Kohistan region that was linked to a man who disappeared in 1997 after falling into a glacier crevasse.

Note: Authorities continue to treat recovered remains with care and follow judicial procedures; no further details have been released pending family notifications and case formalities.