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Visitors hike in the Lac Blanc area in the Aiguilles Rouges nature reserve which faces Mont Blanc, above Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, July 31, 2023. /CFP
Europe's highest peak, Mont Blanc, is being impacted by rising temperatures, increasing the risk of rockfall and new crevasses emerging on its glaciers, rescuers and climbers said on Wednesday.
As a result, authorities have advised climbers to postpone their ascent of the peak, which straddles the French-Italian border, because high temperatures have created hazardous circumstances.
"The heat wave affects the high mountains as well as the plains," said Nicolas Zickler, commanding officer of a high mountain police rescue squad.
"It makes rockfalls easier and makes crevasse falls easier by weakening the snow," Nicolas Zickler added.
Daniel Trevena, an Australian alpinist, has been visiting the region for over ten years. "It has definitely changed in that time, and routes are changing ... you can almost see it, just melting away very slowly," he added, pointing out that other high mountains in the region are also being affected.
The Swiss weather service said on Monday that the elevation at which water froze reached a new record high overnight, measuring 5,289 meters (17,350 feet), higher than Mont Blanc's top of slightly over 4,800 meters. This broke the previous year's record of 5,184 meters.
(With input from Reuters)
(If you have specific expertise and want to contribute, or if you have a topic of interest that you'd like to share with us, please email us at nature@cgtn.com.)
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Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466