Receding Glacier Relinquishes a 2-Decade-Old Body, With ID

The body of a man thought to have died more than two decades ago has been found amidst a melting glacier in the Austrian Alps. A mountain guide discovered the remains Friday on Schlatenkees glacier in Tyrol province at an altitude of about 9,500 feet. Lienz Alpine Police later recovered the body by helicopter, according to a Tuesday statement. Authorities tentatively identified the man as a Austrian citizen who would've been 37 at the time of his presumed 2001 death, based on a driver's license and bank card found in a bag just below the body, per CBS News.

Authorities didn't name the man but said he is thought to have died in a ski touring accident, per CNN. Police will confirm his identity using a DNA comparison. The discovery comes less than two months after human remains and partial skis were found on the same glacier, per CBS. Those remains, also thought to be decades old, have yet to be identified. "It is rather rare that human remains and an entire corpse are found on a glacier within such a short period of time," a Tyrol police rep tells the AFP. Schlatenkees, within High Tauern National Park, is "Austria's fastest melting glacier," according to the outlet. (We're on track to lose most of the world's glaciers by the end of this century.)