Rescuers found body parts and equipment as they searched Tuesday for hikers missing after a powerful avalanche killed at least seven people and is largely blamed on rising temperatures that are melting glaciers. Officials initially feared 13 hikers were still missing, but the province of Trento on Tuesday reduced the number of missing to five after eight more checked in with authorities. Rain hampered the search on Monday, but sunny weather on Tuesday allowed helicopters to bring more rescue teams to the site on the Marmolada glacier, east of Bolzano in the Dolomite mountains, even as hopes of finding anyone alive had dwindled. A huge chunk of the glacier broke off on Sunday, triggering an avalanche that sent torrents of ice, rock and debris plowing down the mountainside to unsuspecting hikers below. At least seven people were killed, officials said. “We have to be clear, finding someone alive with these kinds of events is a very remote possibility, very remote, because the mechanical action of this type of avalanche has a very high impact on people,” said Alex Barattin of the Alpine Rescue Service. . Nicola Casagli, a geologist and avalanche expert at the University of Florence, said the impact of the glacier’s collapse on the hikers was greater than a simple avalanche and would have taken them completely by surprise. “These types of events, which are avalanches of ice and debris, are impulsive, fast, unpredictable phenomena, reaching very high speeds and involving large masses,” he said. , because by the time you realize it, you’ve already been hit.” Associated Press photos taken during a helicopter survey of the site showed a gaping hole in the glacier as if it had been carved into the blue-gray ice by a giant ice cream scoop. The ground was still so unstable that rescue crews stayed to the side and used drones to try to find survivors or signs of life, while helicopters searched overhead, some using equipment to detect cellular pings. Two rescuers remained at the scene overnight and were joined by other rescuers on Tuesday morning. Maurizio Delantonio, national president of the Alpine Rescue Service, said teams found body parts, hiking equipment and clothing on the surface of the debris, evidence of the avalanche’s powerful impact on hikers. “We’ve recovered so much debris in the last two days. They are very painful for those who collect them. and then for those who have to analyze them,” he said. “Personally I can only think that what we found on the surface will be the same as what we find below when the ice melts or by digging if there is a chance.” Officials have closed all access routes and lifts to the glacier for hikers, fearing continued instability and the possibility of more chunks of ice breaking off. Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who visited the rescue base in Canazei on Monday, acknowledged that avalanches are unpredictable but that the tragedy “definitely depends on the deterioration of the climate situation”. Italy is in the midst of an early summer heat wave, coupled with the worst drought in northern Italy in 70 years. Experts say there was unusually little snowfall during the winter, exposing the Italian Alps’ glaciers more to the heat and melting of the summer. “So we’re in the worst conditions for a deployment of this kind, when there’s so much heat and so much water running at the base,” said Renato Colucci of the state’s National Research Council, or CNR, Institute of Polar Sciences. “We are not yet able to tell if it was a deep or superficial detachment, but its size seems very large, judging by the preliminary images and information received.” The CNR has estimated that the Marmolada Glacier could disappear completely in the next 25-30 years if current climate trends continue, given that it lost 30% of its volume and 22% of its area from 2004-2015. Casagli said what happened in Marmolada was unusual, but said such devastating avalanches will become more common as global temperatures rise. “The fact that it happened in a hot summer with unusual temperatures should be a wake-up call to understand that these phenomena, although rare, are possible,” he told reporters. “Unless we take decisive action to address the effects of climate change, they will become more frequent.”
