It's that time of year when newspapers habitually run stories
about how the Alps are melting, but the one in yesterday's Observer
was rather more dramatic than most.
British Guide and renowned climber Victor Saunders was apparently
on the Matterhorn last week, with a client, when all hell broke loose
and a series of huge rockfalls raked the mountain's faces.
Saunders survived by sheltering under an overhang but is quoted as
saying that he'd never seen 'so much rock falling at one time'.
Things got so bad that over 70 climbers had to be rescued from the
mountain's slopes last Monday, one of the biggest mountain rescue
operations ever.
The basic problem say scientists is that the permafrost which
holds the loose rocks of the Alps together is slowly melting with
implications not just for rockfall as the whole tottering towers of
schist start to fall apart, but for buildings anchored to ground
previously frozen solid, but now starting to crumble.
Zermatt guides are currently re-equipping the Matterhorn with
fixed ropes to replace those destroyed by the rockfall, but the
increase in incidents of this kind will convince more people that the
Alps are actually safer for climbing in bitterly cold winter
conditions.
For the full story click here.
