Melting Mont Blanc Glacier Yields Remains of Dead Hikers

Italian mountain rescue crews say they have recovered the remains of two or three hikers on a glacier on Mont Blanc’s southern face likely dating from the 1980s or 1990s.

Alpine rescue commander Delfino Viglione said Friday the bodies were discovered this week by a hiker who was searching the area for artifacts from decades-old plane crashes, including one in the 1960s that killed more than 100 people.

Viglione said a wallet belonging to a German man who went missing in the 1990s was found in a backpack near the remains. A coroner was testing the remains to see if they are a match.

Glacier-melting during this unusually hot summer in Europe helped reveal the remains, which were torn asunder over the years by natural glacier movements.