Zanfluron Trail, Switzerland, Sept. 11 (BUS): An alpine rocky trail appears between two glaciers in Switzerland for what the local ski resort says is the first time in at least 2,000 years after the hottest European summer on record.
The Glacier 3000 ski resort in western Switzerland said this year’s snowmelt was about three times the 10-year average, meaning that bare rocks between the Scex Rouge and Zanfleuron glaciers can now be seen at 2,800 meters and the pass will be completely exposed by the end of this month Reuters reports.
“About 10 years ago, I measured 15 meters (50 feet) of ice here, so all that ice in the meantime has melted,” said Mauro Fischer, a glaciologist at the University of Bern’s Institute of Geography.
“What we’ve seen this year and this summer is just something extraordinary and it really goes beyond everything we’ve measured so far,” he added, referring to the speed with which the ice is melting.
Since last winter, which brought relatively little snow, the Alps have been swept by two major heatwaves in early summer. Data has shown that Alpine glaciers are now on track to post their largest mass losses in at least 60 years of record-keeping.