DNA Confirms Identity of Belgian Climbers Missing 34 Years
DNA analysis has formally confirmed that human remains found on the Trift Glacier in the Swiss Alps belong to two Belgian climbers who disappeared in September 1992, according to the Wallis cantonal police. The confirmation, announced Wednesday, brings closure to a decades-old mystery that has haunted the families of the two men from Beerse, Belgium.
The remains were discovered on July 26, 2026, by a hiker who spotted them exposed by the melting glacier near Saas-Grund in the Swiss canton of Wallis. “A direct comparison of DNA profiles has formally established that these are two mountaineers who went missing in the Weissmies region in 1992,” the police statement said. The analysis was conducted at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Wallis Hospital in Sion.
The 1992 Disappearance
The two Belgian men, aged 39 and 41 at the time, departed on the morning of September 4, 1992, from the Weissmieshütte at 2,726 meters altitude, heading toward the Almagellerhütte. Their planned route crossed the 4,017-meter Weissmies peak. But as VRT NWS reported, the climbers encountered particularly severe weather conditions and never reached their destination.
A first helicopter search operation yielded nothing. In January 1993, a hiker found a climbing backpack on the Trift Glacier — an important clue, but the men remained missing. In August 1994, a team of Belgian speleologists conducted a second search expedition examining crevasses around where the backpack was found, also without results.
Discovery and DNA Confirmation
On July 26, 2026, a hiker reported finding human remains on the Trift Glacier, which had been exposed by the retreating ice. Identification papers found with the remains initially suggested they were the two missing Belgians, and local police informed the families on July 31.
The families expressed their wish to “experience this difficult period in peace,” as reported by Het Laatste Nieuws. The DNA analysis, now completed, has removed all doubt about the identity of the two men.
A Growing Phenomenon
The discovery is part of a broader pattern linked to climate change. As the Wallis police noted, “Due to the retreat of glaciers, the remains of people who disappeared in the mountains several decades ago are repeatedly revealed.”
Belgian glaciologist Lander Van Tricht echoed this observation, telling RTV that “due to climate change, those glaciers are retreating, they become thinner and we increasingly see bodies coming out of the ice.”
Similar cases have occurred worldwide in recent years. In 2025, the remains of a Swiss mountaineer who disappeared in 1994 were found on the Ober Gabelhorn mountain in Wallis. That same year, a missing man’s body was discovered on a melting glacier in Pakistan, 28 years after he went missing. In July 2024, the body of an American mountaineer was found 22 years after he disappeared in Peru, and in 2023, the remains of a German climber who went missing in 1986 were recovered on a glacier in the Swiss Alps.
Closure for Families
For the families of the two Belgian climbers, the confirmation ends more than three decades of uncertainty. As Gerry Van Loock of the Belgian Missing Persons Unit told VRT NWS, “That way, the grieving process can begin and they can move on with their lives, however difficult that loss may be, of course. A bad answer is still better than no answer at all.”
The Wallis cantonal police maintain a registry of missing persons dating back to 1925, primarily people who disappeared in high mountains or in rivers and bodies of water. The exact cause of death of the two climbers has not been determined, and their names have not been publicly released.
As CBS News reported, the case highlights how the intersection of advancing forensic technology and environmental change can resolve mysteries that once seemed unsolvable. The retreat of the Trift Glacier — a direct consequence of climate change — exposed what had been preserved in ice for over three decades, finally giving the families the answers they had been waiting for since 1992.