Sunday’s ascent of Marmolada, the largest glacier in the northern Italian Dolomites, was only meant to be a warm-up for Filippo Bari and his friends before an even bigger challenge this weekend.
The 27-year-old climber’s joy at being on the glacier was so great that he sent a selfie to his brother. Hours later, the father-of-one, from the Veneto town of Malo, was among the first identified victims after a huge mass of the glacier broke off, sending an avalanche of ice, rocks and debris thundering down the slope and onto the popular hiking trail.
“He was a great man, so young, full of life and passion for the mountains,” said Lino Re, president of the Small Unit of Cai, the Italian mountaineers’ club of which Barry was a member. “We had a trip to Monte Rosa, the second highest peak in the Alps after Mont Blanc, planned for this weekend and Filippo and his friends were preparing for it.”
A man carries flowers in Canacei to pay tribute to the victims. Photo: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
Barry was on Marmolada with a group of four climbers. One was injured in the avalanche and the other two are among the 13 still missing.
So far, seven people have been confirmed dead and eight injured, two seriously, in the tragedy that rocked Canacei, the town closest to Marmolada. Many of its 2,000 residents were aware of the rapidly shifting glacier, but never expected a disaster of this kind.
Filippo Bari, one of the victims of the falling ice in Marmolada, Italy. His photo was shared on the Facebook page of Francesco Gonzo, the mayor of his hometown.
“It’s hard to even put into words what happened,” said Pietro Planchenstein. “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 over the past 72 years, with the rate of retreat accelerating over the past 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 people on Tuesday morning, an operation that has been hampered by thunderstorms 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, an alpine guide. Some of the bodies can only be identified through DNA testing due to the nature of their deaths. They were taken to a makeshift morgue on an ice rink near Canacei, where relatives of those still missing are desperately waiting for news.
Lucia Novak, who works at Rifugio Marmolada. Photo: Giulia Faccin/The Guardian
Among those declared 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.
They had all ventured to Marmolada on a beautiful sunny day. “The terrace was full of people,” said Lucia Novak, who works at Rifugio Marmolada, a mountain retreat and restaurant overlooking the glacier.
“I heard a noise around 2pm and when I looked up I saw the avalanche, but then I didn’t know what it was. Within five minutes everything changed – we had this beautiful sunshine, but then it got dark, cold and windy. I could see people walking down the slope, then nothing. I immediately called 911. I’ve been working here since 2003 and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Track access to Marmolada. Photo: Giulia Faccin/The Guardian
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 Glaciology Committee, there has never been a detailed study dedicated to the danger from breaking off, as falls of this type have never been recorded.
He said a friend of his went to the glacier on Saturday and took pictures near the area of the tragedy. “Looking at the pictures, you don’t see evidence of major fractures that suggest it’s in a state that’s more dangerous than at other times,” Bondesan added.
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Experts believe a heat wave that has swept Italy since May, bringing unusually high temperatures for the start of summer even in the normally cooler Alps, contributed to the glacier’s tip breaking off and hurtling down the slope at speeds estimated at nearly 200 mph per hour (300 km/h).
The winter was also unusually warm and snowfall was significantly less than the previous winter.
“It’s clear that if it’s very hot, the risk of hanging pieces of glacier breaking off is greater,” said Claudio Smiraglia, a glaciologist at the University of Milan. “There are many cases on Mont Blanc, but there are areas on Mont Blanc, especially those popular with climbers, where there is constant surveillance. The most obvious sign is the widening of cracks, but this is not always so easy to understand to the point where you perceive it as a danger and close the mountain. But this warming has put the glaciers in crisis and needs maximum attention.”
Re, who has been climbing mountains for more than 30 years, has witnessed the development of Marmolada at an alarming rate. “The glacier was already reduced to a very sad level and has progressively deteriorated over the last decade,” he said. “Sunday’s event was exceptional; we can hope that such exceptional events will be few and far between, but unfortunately there will be more.”
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