A German climber who had been missing since 1986 was positively identified via the human remains that were discovered on a glacier in the area of the famed Matterhorn in Switzerland.
This is only the latest long-hidden fact to be uncovered by the rapidly melting Alpine glaciers caused by global warming.
According to BBC, the corpse was found by hikers earlier this month when they traversed the Theodul glacier in Zermatt. Something was sticking out of the ice, and they saw a boot with crampons.
DNA testing positively identified the corpse as the missing German climber from 37 years ago. He was not located despite a massive search and rescue effort being conducted at the time.
Police did not release the climber's identity but did reveal that he was 38 years old when he vanished on a hike.
Aftermath of Icy Meltdown
Similar to the rest of the Alpine glaciers, the Theodul glacier has been receding rapidly in recent years. Zermatt is home to Europe's highest ski resort, hence the area is popular among winter sports enthusiasts all year round.
However, alpine ice fields are particularly vulnerable to increasing temperatures. The Theodul and the neighboring Gorner glacier were formerly linked, but the two glaciers have since separated the two areas.
Almost every summer, the melting ice exposes a long-lost object or person. The remains of an aircraft that went down in the Aletsch glacier in 1968 were discovered only last year.
In 2014, while transporting supplies to a mountain refuge on Switzerland's most iconic summit of the Matterhorn, a helicopter pilot noticed something out of the ordinary. In a report by The Guardian, the pilot found the remains of missing British climber Jonathan Conville.
For almost 30 years, since 1979, Conville had been presumed dead. After so many years of uncertainty, his loved ones' "bittersweet" reaction to learning he passed away at his favorite place was understandable.
Two Japanese mountaineers were found dead at the foot of the Matterhorn glacier the following year, as reported by The Washington Post. During a snowfall in 1970, they vanished.
Even the boundary between Switzerland and Italy shifted somewhat due to melting ice last year. The drainage split, or the point where meltwater flows downhill into one nation or the other, was the original location of the boundary. As the glacier retreated, the drainage divide moved.
The famed Italian mountain lodge Rifugio Guide del Cervino, popular among skiers and hikers, is now officially in Switzerland, and the Swiss and Italian governments have been in sensitive discussions about how to redraw the line.
