GENEVA — Swiss police said that the remains of a German climber who has been missing for nearly 40 years were found by climbers earlier this month as ice was melting by the Matterhorn mountain.
Police have not publicly identified the 38-year-old German man that went missing in September 1986. Police say that they were unable to locate him at the time of his disappearance, according to The Associated Press.
Climbers on the Theodul glacier near the border of Italy found the man’s remains on July 12. The AP reported that the man’s remains were taken to a hospital in the area for analysis. Genetic testing was conducted and police did identify him.
“The bodies of mountaineers whose disappearance was reported decades ago are increasingly turning up due to the receding glaciers,” law enforcement said, according to The Washington Post. The reason is because of global warming -- rising temperatures and glaciers that are melting. In that melting process, the remains are getting uncovered and the climbing is getting more dangerous.
The Matterhorn is a pyramid-shaped mountain that is about 14,692 feet high, according to the Post. It lies between on the Swiss-Italian border.
At least 500 people have died trying to climb the Matterhorn, as of 2011. The Post says the Matterhorn’s death toll is “significantly higher” than that of Mount Everest, which is the tallest peak in the world being that it is over 29,000 feet high.
Bodies of climbers that have gone missing are hard to locate if they are buried under snow or if they slide down a slope, the Post reported. It also becomes harder to find them as time passed. Sometimes they are even found but weather or poor conditions make it risky to move them at high altitudes.
