Courmayeur · Italy
Where the ice used to be
Observe the sides of the valley and look for a line. There is a band, at a certain height, where the vegetation changes abruptly and below which the rock appears barer and paler. That line is not accidental: it is the level the surface of the glacier reached, and the stone beneath it was polished by the ice that ran over it. Lower down, along the valley floor, stretch backs of rubble: the moraines, the material the glacier pushed before it and then abandoned as it withdrew. The outermost date from the early nineteenth century, when the glaciers of the Alps reached their greatest extent in several hundred years. Since then they have lost ground almost without interruption. The valley is written down like a document, and the writing is recent.
Go deeper
What was the Little Ice Age?
A period of a few centuries, up to the middle of the nineteenth, when average temperatures in Europe were lower and the glaciers advanced. In the Alps they came to threaten villages and fields, and there are records of communities having masses said to stop the ice.
How far have they pulled back since?
A long way, and faster in recent decades. Some glaciers in the massif have lost kilometres of length and tens of metres of thickness. Photographs from the late nineteenth century, taken from the same places, are the most direct comparison there is.
Can you walk on the moraines?
On the waymarked paths yes, and several Val Veny routes follow them. Off the paths no: the material is unstable, it often sits on dead ice, and the flanks give way. Recent moraines are the most mobile part of the whole landscape.
Where it is
More stories in Courmayeur
- The Aiguille Blanche
- The Aiguille Noire
- Duke of the Abruzzi Alpine Museum
- The Brenva Spur
- The Guides' House
- Church of Saint Pantaléon
- The quiet col
- The Col de la Seigne