Heatwave Closes Mont Blanc As Peaks Disintegrate

[hatrack]

Record Heatwave closes Mont Blanc to tourists
David Rose, Sunday August 17, 2003
The Guardian

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"The conditions have been so extreme, say glaciologists and climate experts, and the retreat of the Alps' eternal snows and glaciers so pronounced that the range - and its multi-billion pound tourist industry - may never fully recover. The freak weather, with no substantial snowfall since February, means pylons holding up ski-lifts and cable cars may be too dangerous to use next winter, while the transformation of shining mountains into heaps of grey scree and rubble is unlikely to persuade tourists there this summer to return.

From the streets of Chamonix, the bustling resort at its base, Mont Blanc and its outlying peaks, the Aiguille du Midi, Mont Blac du Tacul and Mont Maudit, rise in a giant curtain usually filling half the sky with dazzling whiteness. This year they are grey with old, dirty ice from which the overlying snow has long melted, while their slopes are being raked by regular fusillades of rocks, some the size of cars, dislodged as the ice surrounding them melts in the heat.

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'No one has ever seen a year like this,' said a spokesman for Chamonix's Office de Haute Montagne. 'There has been occasional rain in the valley, which would normally fall as snow in the high mountains. But after a very warm and dry spring, the freezing level has mostly been above 13,000 ft since the beginning of June.'

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Famous peaks are disintegrating before Chamoniards' eyes. Patricia Rafaelli, a ski instructor, was in her office at the Chamonix golf club watching the Dru, a granite spire, which bears some of the world's hardest rock climbs, falling apart as the ice holding it together melted. 'I'm sitting here and every hour or so there is another rockfall, with boulders thundering down through the forests below the mountain and filling the sky with dust,' she said. Glaciologists estimate it will take 30-40 metres of snow, which would normally take several harsh winters to fall, to make good the deficit of snow and ice that has melted this summer."

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Guardian Online

[Gloria]

1. Ironically, last night on the Weather Channel

they reported SNOW FALLING at around 12,000 feet in parts of the the Colorado Rockies!!!!!

[hatrack]

2. Well, I'm glad someone's getting snow out there! nt

;-)

[eileen from OH]

3. Does this mean. . .

my pen won't work anymore?

George W.

[hatrack]

4. ROFLMAO!!!

But as a good Christian, George wouldn't be caught dead without his CROSS pen.

It's not only an elegant writing implement, but it also frightens away vampires and Donald Rumsfeld when Shrub is busy.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. But the repukes will tell you

there is no global warming, and that we should let the corporations continue to trash the planet.

[phoebe]

6. I would also expect extreme avalanche hazards next ski season

considering the reported rock shifts.

[GAspnes]

7. I have been putting off my world tour too long

I'd better get hustling. The Alps, Kilomanjaro, the rain forest, what's left of China ... so I can tell my grandkids "Yeah, I saw a tree when I was your age. They were everywhere then...."

[Atlant]

8. Ahh, the "Silent Running" tour...

so I can tell my grandkids "Yeah, I saw a tree
when I was your age. They were everywhere then...."

Ahh, the "Silent Running" tour...

Or is it the "Soylent Green" tour?

Atlant