Hiker Identified Nearly 60 Years After Fatal Fall in Austrian Alps

The remains, uncovered in 2024 due to glacier retreat, belong to a German man who disappeared in 1967 after falling into a crevasse.

The remains of a German hiker, missing since 1967, were found in the Tyrol region of Austria and identified through DNA analysis.
The discovery was made in August 2024 by a shepherd who found a leg and foot in a valley near Sölden at an altitude of 2,459 meters.
The man, aged 30 at the time of his disappearance, fell into a crevasse at approximately 3,200 meters on the Wasserfallferner glacier during an accident in the Alps.
Efforts to locate him in 1967 were abandoned due to severe weather conditions, and the identification of such old remains is considered rare.
Experts attribute the discovery to accelerated glacier melt caused by climate change, which has exposed other long-lost remains in the Alps in recent years.