In the world of mountain climbing and backcountry skiing, those who are lost are never truly gone. Their spirit lives on immortalized at the age they perished.
But for many families of the lost they never truly have closure when the bodies of their loved ones are often blown from mountain ledges or receded into an icy crag never to be seen again.
Over time, however, the glaciers recede and the ice melts and secrets from the past are revealed. In Switzerland, a shifting glacier revealed the body of a skier missing for 53 years.
DNA analysis confirmed the remains found on the Morteratsch Glacier in Switzerland were in fact that of a 36-year-old German skier who was last seen Aug 30, 1963, according to local police. He had left at 7 am to ski between two huts at about 3,200 meters.
His body was reportedly discovered by climbers in 2014 in an area of shifting ice, but wasn’t exhumed until experts reached it with the local police. Several body parts were then analyzed by the Institute of Forensic Medicine in St. Gallen.
