Swiss glacier skeleton identified as missing Briton

The Corbassière glacier is part of the Grand Combin region that is popular with winter sports enthusiasts. Keystone / Alessandro Della Bella

Human remains disgorged by a glacier in southwest Switzerland have been identified as a British man who was aged 32 when he went missing in the area nearly 50 years ago.

The skeleton of the man, who has not been named, was found poking out of the Corbassière glacier in canton Valais last September.

+ The grisly secrets being revealed by Swiss glaciers

DNA analysis and cooperation with the British authorities revealed the identity of the winter sports enthusiast who disappeared on New Year’s Eve 1974.

Switzerland’s shrinking glaciers are revealing more grisly secrets each year as they are continuously eroded by warming temperatures.

Along with the remains of several bodies, Swiss glaciers last year also disgorged the wreckage of a light aircraft that had crashed in 1968.

+ Read how Switzerland’s glaciers are disappearing

Increasing temperatures have reduced the volume of Alpine glaciers by about 60% since 1850.

Experts fear that most of Switzerland’s glaciers will have melted by the end of the century.