Aosta. Glaciers retreating, mountains crumbling. It didn't take the collapse of the Birch glacier last May 28 - which overwhelmed the village of Blatten, in the Swiss canton of Valais - to understand that the climate crisis can have devastating effects, but what happened beyond the Alps requires a reflection on the safe frequentation of the mountains by mountaineers and enthusiasts of altitude.
“What happened in Switzerland it is a limit event - explains Piero Carlesi, president of the Central Scientific Committee of the Italian Alpine Club who, on these issues, works in close contact with the Italian Glaciological Committee - the increase in temperatures caused by climate change leads to a lesser resistance of the rocky bodies at high altitudes held together by the permafrost, which acts like a glue. With high temperatures this melts and landslides can occur" which, in the mountain valleys, "will be increasingly common".
According to the president of the Central Scientific Committee of the CAI, in Italy at the moment we cannot speak of cases similar to that. The situation closest, although different, to that of Blatten could be that of Val Ferret in Courmayeur where many hanging glaciers are clinging to the rock but are certainly monitored.
The important thing is that landslides can occur in places where there are no inhabited centers". The only certainty in the face of changing mountains is the greater attention required of those who practice mountaineering. "At Capanna Margherita, on Monte Rosa, at 4.500 meters above sea level, seven degrees have been measured in broad daylight in recent weeks - continues Carlesi - this temperature makes it clear that the freshly fallen snow melts immediately and the glacier not only shortens but above all flattens".
Those who tackle ice climbing "find themselves with many more exposed crevasses because with the high temperatures many snow bridges that normally survived even during the summer now disappear immediately and this requires more attention". With the retreat of the white giants, the itineraries and their difficulty also change.
“Many peaks and refuges that could be reached more easily by climbing glacial slopes are no longer possible because the ice has disappeared or has shrunk, giving way to rock. Therefore, even the descriptions of mountaineering routes that we find in guidebooks are no longer effective in real time and very often instead of ice we find slabs of rock that we have to overcome with more care than proceeding on the glacier with ice axe and crampons”.
Situations that those who are members of the CAI have learned to deal with thanks to specific training courses. “We have mountaineering courses for both ice and rock climbing. Our members are mountaineers trained by national mountaineering instructors and certainly know how to tackle the mountain in the right way,” explains Carlesi. It is advisable to contact the local alpine guides before tackling a climb to “gather directions and advice even at the last moment to move safely.”
Also because there are always those who improvise as high altitude visitors, venturing onto the glacier with sneakers. "This is an increasingly widespread phenomenon because the mountain is now conceived as an amusement park - adds the president of the Central Scientific Committee of the CAI - the mayors of the municipalities beyond the borders have dictated very severe rules with fines and bans here in Italy this does not happen yet".
For the Italian Alpine Club, safety and training go hand in hand with monitoring. For this reason, a few years ago, together with the CNR, the National Research Council, it launched the project of the network of climate and environment sentinel refuges, which involved the installation of 29 weather and climate control units in refuges in the Alps and Apennines to collect data relating, for example, to temperature, humidity, wind and brightness.
“In the next few years we will have data to be able to do studies,” says Carlesi, recalling how thanks to one of these control units equipped with a webcam and installed at the Citelli refuge, it was possible to immortalize in real time the recent sudden eruption of a small crater on Etna.
In addition to collecting data to study the future, the retreat of glaciers can become an opportunity to reconstruct the past. In this perspective, the Central Scientific Committee of the CAI has launched, together with other organizations and associations that deal with mountains, an appeal to those who frequent high altitudes and find along the routes artifacts or objects belonging to mountaineers of the past who emerged from the ice.
“We ask that you notify the appropriate people – Alpine guides, forest rangers, Carabinieri – to prevent them from going missing or someone from taking them home. It is absolutely necessary to ensure that these objects are preserved in museums to be seen by the public, given their historical and archaeological importance”.
Article published on 11 June 2025 - 15:20
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