Mountaineers discovered the bones of a Swiss man who disappeared more than thirty years earlier near Zermatt (Valais) in mid-October, the region’s public prosecutor announced on Wednesday.
“On October 15, 2025, bones were discovered by mountaineers on the Obergabelhorn glacier above Zinal,” the judicial authorities recalled in a press release.
Police officers were airlifted
Valais regional police officers were flown to the scene to collect bones and personal belongings and an investigation was opened for identification purposes.
In October, Alpinisten beim Aufstieg auf das Obergabelhorn menschliche Überreste. However, we didn’t know what to do, but we heard Knochen. https://t.co/P5c5eyM3pL
— Click (@Blickch) November 12, 2025
And the investigation made it possible to unravel the mystery about these bones: they belonged to a Swiss born in 1969 who disappeared in the area on November 4, 1994. He was then with another mountaineer until his body was discovered in 2000, the public prosecutor said.
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Secrets buried in ice
Melting Swiss glaciers could bring objects buried beneath the ice to the surface for years, even decades. In 2022, the wreckage of a plane that crashed in the Alps in 1968 was discovered on the Aletsch glacier. The bodies of the three passengers were also found at that time.
Obergabelhorn (literally “Upper Fork Horn”), which peaks at 4,063 m, is one of five peaks over 4,000 m above sea level that form a belt called the “imperial crown” overlooking the Val d’Anniviers in Valais, in the south of the country. The climb is very popular among experienced mountain climbers.
