Vanished Glaciers, Falling Rocks Force Changes For Alpine Hikers In France, Switzerland - Reuters

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The Trient glacier starts at a height of about 3,300 metres and the end, in the Trient valley, is now at some 1,900 metres. It used to run down almost as far as a refreshment hut at about 1,600 metres. It is just one of the many signs of the havoc climate change is wreaking on the mountains. I walked over, around or across many of them this summer, including the Chamonix-Zermatt trek from Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn.

Most hikers take about two weeks to complete the trail, which forces a way through some of the highest mountains in Western Europe across ridges and deep valleys, climbing more than 12,000 metres in altitude over the course of the journey. It skirts glaciers where not long ago technical equipment could have been used to cross the ice. Some sections have been wiped out by rockfall, forcing walkers to take long and often uncomfortable detours over boulder fields.

One of the starker examples is a jumbled mass of debris and boulders where the Grand Desert glacier used to stretch below the peak of Rosablanche. Only a few years ago, the route used to cross the glacier itself at a safe point, with no dangerous crevasses. Now there is no real path but red stripes painted on the rubble carried down by the glacier and left behind in this barren wilderness. Further on, falling rock has forced a change of route around the dammed Lac de Dix high above the Rhone valley.

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After two weeks of hard travel, my first full view of the Matterhorn's iconic needle caused a shock, even from far away down the valley. What used to be a classic north face, sheathed in ice and shadow, is now predominantly rock.

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http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-29888520071007?pageNumber=2