BEYOND ALP: Body Found On Swiss Alps Matched To Man Who Vanished In 1990
Mortal remains found on a Swiss glacier last month have been matched to a German mountaineer who vanished without a trace more than three decades ago.
On 26th July this year, two mountaineers discovered human remains and several pieces of equipment on the Stockji Glacier in Zermatt, Switzerland.
And now DNA testing has found they belong to a mountaineer who was declared missing in August 1990 and was never found.
Police in Valais Canton did not release the victim’s name but said the 27-year-old man was en route from Chamonix, France, to Domodossola, Italy, via the Swiss Alps.
But he never reached his destination and a search effort at the time proved unsuccessful.
Luc Lechanoine, 55, and Vincent Danna, 50, were the mountaineers who discovered his remains by chance this year.
Luc told Swiss media at the time: “We were on the Stockji rock, we unequipped ourselves. We unroped and took off our crampons to go back down to the moraine.
“And that’s where you can see on the height, on the glacial tongue, a heap of belongings. Bags maybe? People? It wasn’t moving.
“With binoculars, it wasn’t precise enough. I went to look, leaving my climbing partner, and went back to the glacier. We had to know if anyone needed our help.
“Up close, I discovered a somewhat mummified skeleton, damaged but complete. There was her blue and red backpack, one of her arms was still in a strap.
“There was also a pink and black Leki ski or walking pole, a fuchsia fleece and a rudimentary ice axe broken in three.
“This person was wearing leather shoes and cleats with leather straps, older material than the rest. She was in jeans, so not really equipped for the mountains.
“She or he had to be alone. It’s hard to say how long this corpse was there. I would say between 30 and 40 years old, maybe more.
“The 80s with those neon colours, I would say.”
Luc and his friend alerted police on their return to Zermatt.
Swiss police said the remains of an increasing number of missing mountaineers are being unearthed due to glacial retreat during this year’s particularly warm summer.
