Alpinisme

"Keen alpinists, hurry up and climb the Aiguille du Tour!" That's the counsel of Jean-Louis Laroche and Florence LeLong, authors of a new climbing guide to the Mont Blanc Range, which, the cover advertises, reflects "recent topographic change." Wait too long to tackle the Auguille du Tour, say the duo, and the descent will likely end in a gaping bergschrund. (For non-climbers, a 'schrund is a crevasse that forms where the glacier pulls away from the rock face, often posing a formidable obstacle to mountaineers.)

In the Foreword, Laroche and LeLong write:

...this selection has an urgent modern emphasis as the mountain environment itself is changing due to global warming, which is affecting routes considerably. Peaks of medium altitude (up to 3500m) are particularly afflicted. Some of the granite faces have been collapsing spontaneously, because the ice that bounds them has disappeared. Some slopes have turned into ice before melting and revealing a base of unstable scree; glaciers have receded and some bergschrunds have widened.

I wish the book had provided more specifics and documentation, as well as information about how warming was affecting safety margins, but it's a thin volume aimed at peak-baggers and that's all you get. Time will tell, but I expect we'll hear of more tragic accidents in the Alps as objective dangers -- rockfall, icefall, avalanches -- increase. Bon courage.