A 38-year-old German climber vanished into thin air in the slopes and glaciers above Zermatt in September 1986. At the time, there was no success in finding the man.
But 37 years later, on July 12, 2023, the remains of a climber were discovered above the town of Zermatt on the Theodul glacier. The remains of the tragic missing German climber were identified after DNA analysis conducted by forensic specialists in Sion. The climber’s gear, which included crampons and hiking boots, was also discovered. Switzerland’s glaciers are melting and retreating as temperatures rise. They provide answers to old puzzles as they go.
However, there are other forces at play besides melting. The flow of glaciers is continuous. Other climbers who vanished on the Aletsch glacier in 1926 had their initial locations estimated by mathematicians and were discovered in 2012. How mathematicians solved the mystery of glacier death after 86 years: The remains of these climbers were carried by glacial flow 10 kilometers from their likely death site.