The thick layer of ice that has covered a Swiss mountain pass for centuries will completely melt away within weeks, according to a local ski resort. After a dry winter, the heatwaves that ravaged Europe over the summer have had catastrophic effects on the glaciers in the Alps, which are melting at an accelerated rate.
The pass between Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron has been frozen over since at least Roman times. But now that both glaciers have retreated, the bare rock of the ridge between the two is beginning to emerge and the mountain pass will be completely ice-free before the end of summer.
“The pass will be fully open in a few weeks,” the Glacier 3000 ski area said in a statement. While the ice was about 15 meters thick in 2012, the ground beneath it “will be completely dried up by the end of September.”
The ridge is located at an altitude of 2,800 meters in the Glacier 3000 ski area and in fact marks the border between the cantons of Vaud and Valais in western Switzerland.
Skiers could glide over the top of one glacier to another. But now a strip of rock has formed between the two glaciers, with only the last remnant of ice.
Glaciologist Mauro Fischer, a researcher at the University of Bern, said the loss of thickness from the region’s glaciers will be on average three times greater this year than in the past 10 summers.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss out on any of the stars.