A fast-melting glacier in the Mont Blanc raised an alarm in the area of Val Ferret of Courmayeur.

Plampincieux Iconography - from Daily Mail. A fast-melting glacier in the Mont Blanc raised an alarm in the area of Val Ferret of Courmayeur.

A fast-melting glacier in the Mont Blanc raised an alarm in the area of Val Ferret of Courmayeur.

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The Planpincieux glacier on the Grande Jorasses peak of the Mont Blanc massif, which marks the border between Italy, France and Switzerland is fast-melting and could provoke a collapse of 8.8 million cubic feet mass of the 512 square mile glacier.

A helicopter rides on top of the glacier. Photo: Antonio Calanni AP - The Guardian. A fast-melting glacier in the Mont Blanc raised an alarm in the area of Val Ferret of Courmayeur.
A helicopter rides on top of the glacier. Photo: Antonio Calanni AP – The Guardian. A fast-melting glacier in the Mont Blanc raised an alarm in the area of Val Ferret of Courmayeur.

The glacier overlooks the Val Ferret and Planpincieux, 7 km up from Courmayeur. Experts from Fondazione Montagna Sicura (Safe Mountain Foundation), a charity in charge of monitoring the glaciers of Aosta Valley, said that this glacier has been moving since they have been monitoring it closely starting in 2013, but the size of a recent fracture and the increase of the speed at which the ice is melting raised the alarm.

This area is popular with hikers, so Courmayeur’s Major Miserocchi closed as a safety measure, mountain refuges and part of a road upon which the ice could directly fall. Contrary to first reported, only one home had to be evacuated. The rest of the 10 homes in the hamlet beneath the glacier are empty summer holiday homes.

A group of 160 or so pupils marched on Friday to protest against climate change with banners and slogans from “Ban plastic, save our planet” to “You broke our glacier”.

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Chacaltaya Ski Resort is not Operating due to the Retreat of a 18,000-year-old glacier.

Chacaltaya Ski Resort in Bolivia. Chacaltaya Ski Resort is not Operating due to the Retreat of a 18,000-year-old glacier.

Chacaltaya Ski Resort is not Operating due to the Retreat of a 18,000-year-old glacier.

Chacaltaya, the world’s highest ski resort in Bolivia, has been deserted after its 18,000-year-old glacier has melted away.

The Chacaltaya Ski Resort was once the only ski resort in Bolivia, where people of the neighbouring La Paz used to go skiing. The resort was also the home of the highest restaurant in the world and the resort itself was also the highest ski resort in the world. As the glacier melted, the resort was abandoned.

Chacaltaya Ski Resort in Bolivia. Chacaltaya Ski Resort is not Operating due to the Retreat of a 18,000-year-old glacier.
Chacaltaya Ski Resort in Bolivia. Chacaltaya Ski Resort is not Operating due to the Retreat of a 18,000-year-old glacier.

The resort opened in the late 1930s and the season used to last between seven or eight months per year. Visitors came to ski and sledge down the Chacaltaya Glacier until the cold and the altitude made them return to lower elevations.

At 17,519 feet (5,340 m) above sea level, Chacaltaya Ski Resort was not for the heart fainted! The altitude is higher than the North Base Camp of Mount Everest. The restaurant is still recognised as the highest mountain in the world by the Guinness Records.

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What does Climate Change will mean to a Mountain Nation such as Switzerland by 2060.

ADELBODEN - Three friends taking their sledges up the slope. Copyright by Adelboden Tourismus By-line: swiss-image.ch/Anja Zurbruegg Adelboden Lenk Kandersteg: What does Climate Change will mean to a Mountain Nation such as Switzerland by 2060.

What does Climate Change will mean to a Mountain Nation such as Switzerland by 2060. From Swissinfo.ch – Climate Change in forty years in Switzerland will mean over 40C in the cities, long droughts and not too much snow in winter, Switzerland will be looking as a Mediterranean country. This will have consequences in this land-lock country.

Verbier - Valais - What does Climate Change will mean to a Mountain Nation such as Switzerland by 2060.
Verbier – Valais – What does Climate Change will mean to a Mountain Nation such as Switzerland by 2060.

By 2060 the typical weather forecast on a summer day can describe 45C in the cities and twenty days of sustained heat. MeteoSwiss (the federal department of meteorology and climatology) has devised different climate scenarios for Switzerland, in conjunction with the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) and publish edit in a report in mid-November. Peter Binder, the head of MeteoSwiss summarised that “Switzerland will be a hotter and drier place”.

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