A view through the valley to the glacier Schlatenkees.Photo:Getty
Getty
A mountain guide discovered the body on the Schlatenkees glacier in the eastern Tyrol province of Austria on Friday at an altitude of about 9,500 feet, police said according to multiple outlets including theAssociated PressandThe Guardian.
The guide then alerted authorities who retrieved the remains with the assistance of a helicopter.
Sky Newsreported that a backpack, a bank card and a driver’s license were also found near the remains.
DNA results are expected to be ready within weeks, police added.
The Gorner clacier near Zermatt, Switzerland.Sean Gallup/Getty
Sean Gallup/Getty
“In September 1986, a then 38-year-old German alpinist was reported missing after he had not returned from a mountain tour. The search at that time was unsuccessful,” Police in the Valais canton of Switzerland said in a statement.
“The human remains were taken to the forensic medicine of the Valais Hospital (ZIS) for examination according to Sions. By means of a direct DNA comparison, it could be proven that these are the bones of the alpinist, who has been missing since September 1986.”
Bodies that were once thought to be lost are being found as glaciers melt as a result of climate change, Lindsey Nicholson, a glaciologist at the University of Innsbruck, recently told CNN.
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Gunnison County Coroner Michael Barnes told theColorado Sunthat malnutrition and “exposure to the elements” may have resulted in their deaths, although the exact cause was being investigated at the time.
source: people.com
