Glacier melt and lower snow cover shutter classic Alpine routes

GENEVA • Little snow cover and glaciers melting at an alarming rate amid Europe's sweltering heatwaves have put some of the most classic Alpine hiking routes off-limits.

Usually at the height of summer, tourists flock to the Alps and seek out well-trodden paths up to some of Europe's most iconic peaks.

But with warmer temperatures speeding up glacier melt and thawing permafrost - which scientists say are driven by climate change - routes that are usually safe this time of year now face hazards like falling rocks released from the ice.

"Currently in the Alps, there are warnings for around a dozen peaks, including emblematic ones like Matterhorn and Mont Blanc," said Mr Pierre Mathey, head of the Swiss mountain guide association.

"Usually we see such closures in August, but now they have started at the end of June and are continuing in July."

Alpine guides who usually lead thousands of hikers up towards Europe's highest peak announced earlier this week that they would suspend ascents on the most classic routes up Mont Blanc, which straddles France, Italy and Switzerland.

The Guide Alpine Italiane said on its Facebook page that the "particularly delicate conditions" caused by the temperature spike made it necessary to "postpone the climbs". Mountain guides have also refrained - reportedly for the first time in a century - from offering tours up the classic route to the Jungfrau peak in Switzerland. And they have advised against tours along routes on both the Italian and Swiss sides of the towering pyramid-shaped Matterhorn peak.

Mr Ezio Marlier, president of the Valle D'Aosta guides association, said having to steer clear of routes most coveted by tourists was a blow after the Covid-19 slowdowns. "It is not easy... after two almost empty seasons to decide to halt work," he told Agence France-Presse.

Climbing on some of the thousands of glaciers dotting Europe's largest mountain range is also proving trickier. "The glaciers are in a state that they are usually in at the end of the summer or even later," said Mr Andreas Linsbauer, a glaciologist at Zurich University.

"It is sure that we will break the record for negative melts," he said.

He said a combination of factors were contributing to a "really extreme" summer, starting with exceptionally little snowfall last winter, meaning there was less to protect the glaciers. Sand also blew up from the Sahara early in the year, darkening the snow, which makes it melt faster.

And then the first heatwave hit Europe in May, with subsequent ones pushing up temperatures even at high altitudes.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE