Such was the joy of the 27-year-old mountaineer at the glacier that he sent a selfie to his brother. Hours later, the father-of-one, from the Veneto town of Malo, was among the first victims to be spotted after a huge mass of the glacier cut off, sending an avalanche of ice, rock and debris thundering down the slope and onto a popular hike. path. “He was a great man, so young, full of life and passion for the mountains,” said Lino Re, president of the Malo unit of Cai, the Italian mountaineering club of which Bari was a member. “We had planned for this weekend a trip to Monte Rosa, the second highest peak in the Alps after Mont Blanc, and Filippo and his friends were preparing for it.” Glacier collapse in Italian Alps: search continues for missing hikers – video report Barry was in Marmolada with a group of four climbers. One was injured by the avalanche and the other two are among the 13 missing. Seven people have so far been confirmed dead and eight injured, two seriously, in a tragedy that rocked Canazei, the nearest town to Marmolada. Many of its 2,000 residents knew the rapidly shifting glacier intimately, but never expected a disaster of this kind. Filippo Bari, one of the victims of the fall of the glacier in Marmolada, Italy. His photo was shared on the Facebook page of Francesco Gonzo, the mayor of his town. “It’s hard to even put into words what happened,” said Pietro Plandzenstein. “Knowing that these people lost their lives so close, it’s terrible. The glacier has changed a lot. when I was a kid I used to ski on it – in the summer – now it’s impossible.” Known as the Queen of the Dolomites, Marmolada has lost more than 80% of its volume in the last 72 years, with the speed of its decline accelerating in the last decade. Italian scientists warned in 2020 that the glacier could disappear within 15 years due to global warming. Rescuers resumed the search for the missing on Tuesday morning, an operation hampered by storms over the past 24 hours, although hopes of finding them alive have dwindled. The victims identified so far include Tommaso Carollo, 48, and Paolo Dani, a driver of the Alps. Some of the bodies can only be identified through DNA testing due to the nature of their death. They were taken to a makeshift morgue at an ice rink near Canazei, where relatives of the missing are desperately waiting for news. Lucia Novak, who works at Rifugio Marmolada. Photo: Giulia Faccin / The Guardian Among the missing are Italians, three Romanians, one of French nationality, another from Austria and four from the Czech Republic. Two of the injured are from Germany. Everyone had ventured to Marmolada on a lovely sunny day. “The terrace was full of people,” said Lucia Novak, who works at Rifugio Marmolada, a mountain refuge and restaurant overlooking the glacier. “I heard a noise, around 14:00, and when I looked up, I saw the avalanche, but I didn’t understand what it was. Within five minutes everything changed – we had this beautiful sunshine, but then it turned dark, cold and windy. I could see people walking on the slope, then nothing. I immediately called the emergency services. I’ve been working here since 2003 and I’ve never seen anything like it.” Monitoring access to Marmolada. Photo: Giulia Faccin/The Guardian The Marmolada has been measured every year since 1902 and is considered a “natural thermometer” of climate change, but according to Aldino Bondesan, professor of geophysics at the University of Padua and member of the Italian Glacier Commission, there has never been a detailed study. dedicated to the risk of breaking as falls of this type have never been recorded. He said a friend had gone to the glacier on Saturday and took pictures near the scene of the tragedy. “Looking at the photos you don’t see any evidence of large fractures that would suggest it was in a state that was more dangerous than at other times,” Bondesan added. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Experts believe that the heat wave that has gripped Italy since May, bringing temperatures unusually high for the start of summer even in the normally cooler Alps, has helped break off the glacier’s peak and slide down the slope at an estimated speed of 200 mph (300 km/h). The winter was also unusually warm and snowfall was significantly lower than the previous winter. “It’s clear that if it’s very hot then the risk of floating pieces of glacier breaking off is greater,” said Claudio Smiraglia, a glaciologist at the University of Milan. “There have been many cases on Mont Blanc, but on Mont Blanc there are areas, especially those popular with climbers, where there is constant monitoring. The most obvious sign is the widening of the cracks, but this is not always so easy to understand to the point that you perceive it as a danger and close the mountain. But this warming has put the glaciers in crisis and they need maximum attention.” Re, who has been climbing the mountains for more than 30 years, had seen the Marmolada evolve at an alarming rate. “The glacier had already declined to a very sad level and has been getting progressively worse over the past decade,” he said. “Sunday’s event was excellent. we can hope that such extraordinary events will be few, but unfortunately more will follow”.
