Swiss mountain pass ice to melt completely within weeks
Christian Fernsby ▼ | August 12, 2022
The thick layer of ice that has covered a Swiss mountain pass will have melted away completely within a few weeks, a ski resort said.Article continues below
Following a dry winter, the summer heatwaves hitting Europe have been catastrophic for the Alpine glaciers, which have been melting at an accelerated rate.
The pass between the Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron glaciers has been iced over since at least the Roman era.
But as both glaciers have retreated, the bare rock of the ridge between the two is beginning to emerge—and will be completely ice-free before the summer is out.
"The pass will be entirely in the open air in a few weeks," the Glacier 3000 ski resort said in a statement.
While the ice measured around 15 meters (50 feet) thick in 2012, the ground underneath "will have completely resurfaced by the end of September".
The ridge is at an altitude of 2,800 meters in the Glacier 3000 ski domain and effectively marks the border between the Vaud and Wallis cantons in western Switzerland.
Skiers could glide over the top from one glacier to the other. But now a strip of rock between them has emerged, with just the last remaining bit of ice left.
"No-one has set foot here for over 2,000 years; that's very moving," said Glacier 3000 chief executive Bernhard Tschannen.
The Scex Rouge glacier is likely to turn into a lake within the next 10 to 15 years. It should be about 10 meters deep with a volume of 250,000 cubic meters (8.8 million cubic feet).
The ski resort is working out how to adapt to the new reality if people cannot ski between the two glaciers.
"We are planning to renew the facilities in this area in the coming years, and one idea would be to shift the route of the current chairlift to allow more direct access to the Tsanfleuron glacier," said Tschannen. ■
Upper-level ridging weakens from the Ohio Valley to the Southeast on Friday, resulting in a reduced area of Heat Advisories over the east.
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