It is said that climate change is caused by the people in the western world and that those who live in developing countries can pay for it. Floods in Bangladesh, drought in Somalia, melting glaciers in Nepal. Everything is right.
But now we have received news that climate change is also hitting places where Rolex and Porsche say good night instead of fox and rabbit: in Switzerland. More precisely: on the Toblerone mountain, also known as the Matterhorn, affectionately called Hörnli by the locals.
The Hörnli is not only one of the most famous mountains in the world, it is also statistically the most dangerous. Since the first ascent in 1865, around 600 people have died on the 4478 meter high mountain. About eight to ten a year.
So that there are no more to come this summer, the Zermatt mountain guides are now advising against climbing the mountain; do not lead anyone up, although they lose more than 1,000 francs per person as a result. The reason: because of the heat (the last time the zero-degree limit was 5100 meters!) there is currently no frozen snow in the summit area that holds the loose rock together. The risk of falling rocks is therefore too great: “If there are a lot of people who have no experience with rope guidance,” said Anjan Truffer, head of the Zermatt mountain rescue service, “it can be very dangerous for the rope teams further down.”
Well, 30 rope teams do gymnastics around there on a good day, that’s up to 100 people, many of whom have no idea, but just really want to stand on the Toblerone mountain. They were unlucky or rather lucky, because they can’t post a summit picture on Instagram, but they don’t run the risk of dying either.
As a consolation, they can’t even make a few turns in Zermatt’s summer ski area, because operations on the glacier were closed a few days ago. The snow has melted, the crevasses are exposed. International ski racers who wanted to train here now have to fly to Chile, in La Parva there are good conditions. Hm. That of course fuels climate change even more. What are the Matterhorn mountain guides supposed to do? They already have an idea: They are now checking, they said, “whether the situation can be defused by clearing the rocks.” Would be even nicer.