During the heat wave in July, there was only ice from 5,184 meters above sea level, when the usual thing in summer is that there is at an altitude of 3,000 or 3,500 meters.
Source: RT in Spanish
In recent weeks, different climbers have found two bodies in the high mountains of the southern Swiss Alps, while the glaciers recede due to the high temperatures of summer. In the southern canton of Valais, on July 26 They found a skeleton in the Stockji Glacier and on August 3 they discovered human bones in the Chessjen Glacier, reported on Monday the local newspaper Blick.
It is rumored that the body found in Stockji may be related to the disappearance of the billionaire owner of the Karl-Erivan Haub supermarket chainwho had German, Russian and American citizenship and was lost track of in the Zermatt region on April 7, 2018.
Without commenting on these particular cases, the Cantonal Police explains that the investigators begin with the analysis of the objects found next to the body, if any, to calculate the age of the remains. DNA tests are then performed if necessary. Several days are required for an identification.
This summer, the Swiss Alps have already recorded unusually high temperatures that were on the brink of reaching 30°C. During the heat wave in July, there was only ice above 5,184 meters above sea level, compared to the usual level of summer, which is between 3,000 and 3,500 meters, reported TheGuardian.
The Valais Police has a list of about 300 cases of missing persons since 1925. With the melting of the glaciers, bodies of people who have been missing for several decades are found with increasing regularity in the ice. In June 2012, the Aletsch Glacier returned the bones of three brothers who died in 1926. In July 2017, the Tsanfleuron Glacier gave back to the Dumoulin de Savièse couple, a couple who died on August 15, 1942.
However, the findings in the area are not only limited to human skeletons. Last week, a mountain guide he found remains of a plane that had crashed on June 30, 1968 on the Aletsch Glacier. At the time of the catastrophe, he had a teacher, a medical director and his son on board, all from Zurich. The bodies were recovered at the time, but the plane wreckage was not.