Overview
- A hiker found human remains on the Trift glacier on July 26, 2026, and Valais regional police say DNA tests at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Sion formally matched them to two missing alpinists.
- The remains were identified as two Belgian climbers who disappeared in the Weissmies region in 1992 when they were 39 and 41 years old and failed to reach the Almagaller refuge or the Weissmies summit.
- Authorities recovered personal effects and transferred the bodies to Sion for genetic testing, and police issued the formal identification after family samples were compared with the forensic profiles.
- Glaciologists and the reporting note that this find fits a recent pattern of recovered remains as Swiss glaciers shrink, with experts warning this year is among the worst for ice volume loss and some small glaciers may disappear.
- Swiss institutions use a long‑running missing‑persons register kept since 1925 to link exposed remains to historical cases, and similar recoveries in Valais have raised questions about water supply, slope stability and search‑and‑identification work.