ROME, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The bodies of four mountain climbers who went missing while hiking on Mont Blanc last weekend have been recovered by Italian authorities, in the latest of a series of deadly Alpine accidents that experts attribute to rising temperatures.
The bodies of Italian Alpinists Andrea Galimberti and Sara Stefanelli, aged 53 and 41 respectively, were found Wednesday morning at an altitude of around 4,500 meters on the French side of the mountain. The bodies of two other climbers, both from the Republic of Korea, were also recovered but have not yet been identified.
Galimberti and Stefanelli had sent a text message relaying their coordinates, adding: "We cannot see anything, come to get us, we are at risk of freezing to death." However, weather conditions prevented crews from reaching them in time.
"The conditions on the top of the mountain are deadly right now," said Paolo Comune, head of the Alpine Rescue Agency in Val d'Aosta, where the Italian part of Mont Blanc is located. Temperatures at that altitude were reportedly minus 12 degrees Celsius, with winds of up to 100 kms per hour.
With its peak standing at 4,809 meters, Mont Blanc is the tallest mountain in the European Union, and straddles France, Italy, and Switzerland.
Earlier in the month, another climber died while scaling the south wall of the Marmolada glacier in Italy.
In July 2022, ten hikers and mountaineers were killed when a large shelf of the Marmolada collapsed amid unusually warm temperatures.
Italy has been increasingly hit by severe weather in recent years. This is the third consecutive year that the country has suffered from record-setting heatwaves and droughts, along with wildfires, water shortages, thunderstorms, hailstorms, and flash floods.
However, the problems in the Alpine regions in the north of the country have been building for decades.
Last month, Italy's Regional Agency for Environmental Protection (ARPA) reported that temperatures at the peak of Mont Blanc rose above freezing for nearly a day and a half, an unprecedented event. In normal conditions, the highest reaches of the mountain remain above freezing year-round. Last year, a report from France's Haute-Savoie observatory said that the mountain had shrunk noticeably in the last two years due to ice loss.
This week, scientists reported that the Marmolada glacier, the largest in Italy's Dolomite Mountain range, is at risk of completely melting away by 2040. Since 1888, 80 percent of the glacier has melted, according to the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps. It is now losing between 7 and 10 cms in thickness per day. ■
