This summer the ice fall of the Petit Vignemale has been disintegrating. It is the last in the Pyrenees and it illustrates the spectacular retreat of the regions glaciers over the last century. In the same range this summer the ice in the couloir du Clot de la Hount has also melted. A classic mixed ice and rock route on the north face of the Vignemale, the couloir de Gaube has also dried out.
However 97 year old local guide François Boyrie remembers the same conditions in the long, hot summer of 1947. He predicted that there would be no glaciers left in the Pyrenees by 2000 but seems to have been out by a generation.. In the intervening years the Pyrenean glaciers even saw some advances from 1978 to 1984. This was but a brief respite, since the end of the little ice age in the 19th century the area covered by ice has shrunk from 45 sq. km. in 1870 to just 5 km. sq. by 2000.
Posted by
davidof on Saturday, 03 November, 2007 at 06:47 PM
Melting of glaciers can lead to flooding of rivers and to the formation of glacial meltwater lakes, which may pose an even more serious threat.
Posted by
Emo on Thursday, 08 November, 2007 at 09:39 AM
That’s right
In 1892 the lake of the glacier de Tête Rousse burst emptying some 200,000 m3 of water and killing 200 people in Saint-Gervais.
http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/vanoise-lake-under-high-surveillance/
Posted by
davidof on Thursday, 08 November, 2007 at 11:31 AM
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