Mountain Guides Suspend Dozens Of Alpine Hiking Routes; Warming Makes Them Too Dangerous
Little snow cover and glaciers melting at an alarming rate in Europe’s heatwaves have put some 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 its peaks. But with warmer temperatures – which scientists say are driven by climate change – speeding up glacier melt and thawing permafrost, routes that are usually safe at this time of year now face hazards such as 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 Pierre Mathey, the head of the Swiss mountain guide association. He said this was happening far earlier in the season than normal. “Usually we see such closures in August, but now they have started at the end of June and are continuing in July.”
Representatives of Alpine guides who usually lead thousands of hikers up towards Europe’s highest peak announced last 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 high temperatures had 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 the Italian and Swiss sides of the pyramid-shaped Matterhorn peak.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/31/heatwaves-put-classic-alpine-hiking-routes-off-limits