Cold Cases: Swiss Glaciers Reveal Grisly Surprises


(MENAFN- Swissinfo) 1926: Three brothers

In 2012 a British couple on the Aletsch glacier in canton Valais discovered the remains of three brothers who had gone missing 86 years earlier.

Robert McGregor told SWI swissinfo.ch how he and his partner had been walking down the glacier when they noticed some discarded wooden walking sticks. But when they found several boots, they realised there probably wasn't going to be a happy ending.“People leave alpenstocks because they break, but they don't leave their boots on the glacier,” he said. They then realised they were surrounded by bones. Also found were items of clothing, binoculars, a pocket watch, a tobapipe and a leather wallet containing coins worth CHF9, the newest being from 1921.

In 2014, scientists reconstructed what had happenedExternal link . On March 4, 1926, witnesses saw four men, three of whom were brothers, set off on a hike from the Hollandia Hut above the Great Aletsch Glacier. It was the last time they were seen alive. The scientists presume the men froze to death and were buried under a heavy snowfall, meaning the weeklong search was in vain.

According to a computer model, the bodies travelled around 10km in the ice at an average speed of 122 metres a year. Tests revealed that the bones belonged to the three brothers; the fourth man has never been found.

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Swissinfo

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