The remains of a climber, frozen in ice, along with a crampon were discovered in September 2007 on the Tré la Tête glacier at around 3000 meters altitude and started the High Mountain Police in Chamonix (PGHM) on a long quest to discover his identity.
The first clue was the crampon which bore the mark Simond. With the help of the manufacture it was dated to somewhere around the 1940s to 1950s. A time before organized mountain rescue operation in France. The investigators decided to ask locals in les Contamines Monjoie. They recalled a terrible accident on the 4th of August 1954 when three members of the same family were killed descending from the summit of the Lex Blanche. The archives of the local newspaper gave them a fuller account of the tragedy. Members of the same family, living in the Paris area, were contacted.
The police laboratory at Rosny-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) identified the body as belonging to a man in his mid 20s and DNA tests confirmed the identity of the victim. The man was with his brother and sister at the time of the drama but his body was never found. He will now be given a proper burial.
Since 1958 there are over 160 people who have gone missing without traced in the Mont Blanc range, some of them are mentioned in the pages of PisteHors.com.
http://www.liberation.fr/actualite/societe/308342.FR.php