According to a ski resort, the extensive amount of ice that has been covering a Swiss mountain pass for centuries will have entirely melted away within a few weeks.
After a dry winter, Europe’s summer heatwaves have been disastrous for the Alpine glaciers, which have been melting more quickly.
Since at least the Roman era, the pass between Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron has been covered in ice.
However, as both glaciers have receded, the exposed granite of the ridge between them is starting to show; by the end of the summer, it will be entirely ice-free.
The Glacier 3000 ski resort announced in a statement that ‘the pass will be totally in the open air in a few weeks.’
While the ice measured around 15 metres (49.5 feet) thick in 2012, the ground underneath ‘will have completely resurfaced by the end of September’.
The ridge, which is at a height of 2,800 metres in the Glacier 3000 ski area, serves as a de facto border between the cantons of Wallis and Vaud in western Switzerland.
Skiers could travel from one glacier to the next by gliding over the top. But now, a strip of rock has formed a barrier between them, leaving only a little patch of ice.
The region’s glaciers would lose thickness on average three times more this summer compared to the previous ten, according to glaciologist Mauro Fischer of Bern University.
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