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☆ A hiker discovered a wealthy traveler's remains on a skiing glacier in Switzerland. They turned out to be 400 years old.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

A hiker discovered the 400-year-old remains of a wealthy man on a glacier in the Swiss Alps. © Valais History Museum, Sion; Michel MartinezAll these items dated to around 1600 AD. Archaeologists uncover mule bones on the Theodul glacier in Switzerland, near Zermatt. © Valais History Museum, Sion; Michel MartinezHe wasn't a soldier-for-hire after all, a 2015 paper concluded. Andenmatten steps out of a freezer where artifacts are stored in the basement of the Valais History Museum archives.

Persons: Michel Martinez, They're, Pierre, Yves Nicod, Nicod, Ambroise Héritier, Morgan McFall, Johnsen, Sophie Providoli, It's, you've, haven't, Philippe Curdy, Romain Andenmatten, Spain's, Emilio Morenatti, Paul HANNY, Ötzi, Andenmatten Organizations: Service, . Business, Business, AP, Johnsen Archaeologists Locations: Swiss, Switzerland, Italy, Valais, Sion, du Valais, Zermatt, Germany, Aosta, Russia, Vilanova, Sau, Catalonia, Spain, Florida, Austria

☆ Zermatt: Five skiers found dead, one missing in Swiss Alps
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Martin Goillandeau | Cnn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —The bodies of five missing skiers were found in the Swiss Alps on Sunday evening, while rescuers are still searching for a sixth person, local police said on Monday. The family members were from the Valais canton, while the sixth person is from the canton of Fribourg. Police did not reveal the identities of the dead skiers, whose bodies were found in Tête Blanche on Sunday, Reuters reported. Search-and-rescue operations were launched on Saturday after the skiers went missing near the 3,706-meter-high (12,159 feet) Tête Blanche pass, en route to the village of Arolla. This call enabled him to be located in the Tête Blanche pass area, at an altitude of around 3,500 meters” (around 11,480 feet), police said.

Persons: Tête Blanche, Valais Cantonal Police Christian Varone, Valentin Flauraud, Blanche, Mont Organizations: CNN, Reuters, Police, Sunday, Valais Cantonal Police Christian, AP Police, “, Cantonal Police, Rescue Organization, Swiss Air Force Locations: Swiss, Zermatt, Blanche, Valais, Fribourg, Tête, Sion , Switzerland, Arolla, Canton, OCVS, Chamonix, France, Mont Blanc, Switzerland

☆ Five Cross-Country Skiers Found Dead in Switzerland, AFP Reports
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( March | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +1 min

(Reuters) - Five cross-country skiers were found dead in Switzerland and a search is still on for a sixth skier, AFP reported on Monday, citing police. Police in Switzerland's Valais canton on Sunday were searching for six people who went missing during a ski tour that departed from the Alpine town of Zermatt. The skiers, five of them members of the same family, went missing around Tete Blanche mountain on Saturday on the Zermatt-Arolla path, near the Matterhorn mountain that straddles the border between Switzerland and Italy, police had said earlier. The skiers were between the ages of 21 and 58, according to police. Five belonged to one family from the Valais canton, while a sixth person is from the canton of Fribourg.

Persons: Gursimran Kaur, Himani Sarkar, Jamie Freed Organizations: Reuters, AFP, Police, Sunday Locations: Switzerland, Switzerland's Valais, Alpine, Zermatt, Valais, Tete Blanche, Italy, Fribourg, Bengaluru

☆ Swiss Rescuers Find Bodies of Five Missing Skiers
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Emma Bubola | More About Emma Bubola | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Five missing skiers were found dead in the Swiss Alps and the search was ongoing for a sixth member of their group, the local police said on Monday. The skiers set out from the Swiss resort town of Zermatt on Saturday morning, aiming for the village of Arolla, across a series of snow-covered peaks. A relative alerted rescue services on Saturday afternoon that the group of Swiss citizens age 21 to 58 had failed to arrive at the village, according to a statement from the Valais region’s police force. One of the skiers managed to call for help about an hour later, allowing rescuers to locate the group near the peak of the Tête Blanche mountain at about 11,000 feet of altitude, the commander of the force told a news conference on Monday. But severe weather conditions and a risk of avalanches forced the search to be suspended until the next day.

Locations: Swiss, Zermatt, Arolla, Valais

☆ Swiss satellite antennas make a comeback as solar powerhouses
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Denis Balibouse | Thomson Reuters | Award Winning Photographer Based In Switzerland With Over Years Of Experience In Coverage Of Local | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Employees of Swiss electricity producer and supplier CKW, part of Axpo, install solar panels in a satellite dish at the Leuk Teleport and Data Center in Leuk, Switzerland, October 18, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Acquire Licensing RightsLEUK, Switzerland, Oct 19 (Reuters) - High in the Alps, two Swiss companies are repurposing obsolete satellite antennas into giant solar panels, taking advantage of Switzerland's mountainous terrain to generate much-needed green energy. Its mountainous location means the solar panels will get more direct sunlight, especially in winter, than if they were installed near mistier, low-lying urban areas. "Former satellite antennas are ideal as solar energy systems," said CKW Group, the energy services provider that assisted Leuk Teleport and Data Center with the repurposing of its antenna. "Solar energy can make an important contribution to the power mix.

Persons: Denis Balibouse, Leuk, Miral Organizations: CKW, REUTERS, CKW Group, Axpo, Thomson Locations: Leuk, Switzerland, Valais, mistier, Swiss

☆ Switzerland's glaciers lose a 'mindblowing' volume of ice in just two years
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( Laura Paddison | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Glaciers in Switzerland are shrinking at a “mind-blowing” rate. In 2023, the country’s glaciers lost 4% of their total volume, according to data from the Swiss Commission for Cryosphere Observation of the Swiss Academy of Sciences. To put this into perspective, Swiss glaciers have lost as much ice over this two-year period as was lost over the three decades between 1960 and 1990. Matthias Huss/GLAMOSThe two extreme years have led to glacier tongues collapsing and many small glaciers in the country disappearing altogether. Several meters of ice disappeared in southern Valais and the Engadin valley at altitudes of more than 3,200 meters (10,500 feet), according to GLAMOS.

Persons: CNN —, ”, Matthias Huss, GLAMOS, ” Huss, Huss, “ Organizations: CNN, Swiss Commission, Swiss Academy of Sciences, Glacier Monitoring Locations: Switzerland, Uri, Valais, Grisons, Switzerland’s

GENEVA (AP) — Voters in a southern Swiss region on Sunday rejected a plan to allow large solar parks on their sun-baked Alpine mountainsides as part of the federal government’s push to develop renewable energy sources. The rejection doesn't torpedo solar parks entirely if the private sector wants to develop them. At stake is up to 60% of financing for big solar parks. The federal energy department estimates that about 40 to 50 proposals for large solar parks have been made across the country. Overall, Swiss federal authorities have set a target of 2 billion GWh in new solar energy under legislation promoting development of solar energy, adopted in September 2022.

Persons: “ Organizations: GENEVA, — Voters, Swiss People's Party Locations: Swiss, Valais, Switzerland, Bern Oberland

☆ Melting ice reveals remains of climber lost on glacier 37 years ago
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Nadine Schmidt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Berlin CNN —The remains of a German mountain climber who went missing 37 years ago while hiking along a glacier near Switzerland’s iconic Matterhorn have been recovered, as melting glaciers lead to the re-emergence of bodies and objects thought to be long lost. “DNA analysis enabled the identification of a mountain climber who had been missing since 1986,” police said in a statement. The discovery of the remains of the German climber comes as scientists revealed earlier this week that this month is on track to be the planet’s hottest in around 120,000 years. All glaciers are melting very fast and receding across the European Alps,” Nicholson said. “Some regions of the world are much more dependent on the glacier mountains than we are here – in some cases they are much more vulnerable than the Alps,” Nicholson added.

Persons: “, Lindsey Nicholson, ” Nicholson, ‘ Organizations: Berlin CNN, ” Police, Valais Hospital, Police, University of Innsbruck, CNN, Reuters Locations: Zermatt, Valais, German, Austria

☆ Switzerland finds remains of climber who disappeared on glacier in 1986
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The grisly discovery was made on July 12 by climbers hiking along the Theodul Glacier in Zermatt, police in the Valais canton said on Thursday. "DNA analysis enabled the identification of a mountain climber who had been missing since 1986," the police said in a statement. "In September 1986, a German climber, who was 38 at the time, had been reported missing after not returning from a hike." The climber's remains underwent a forensic analysis at Valais Hospital, allowing experts to link them to the 1986 disappearance, the police said. Last year Switzerland's glaciers registered their worst melt rate since records began more than a century ago, losing 6% of their remaining volume -- nearly double the previous record in 2003.

Persons: Gabrielle Tétrault, Farber, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Valais Hospital, Thomson Locations: GENEVA, Zermatt, Valais, German

☆ Latest on the intense heat waves and scorching temperatures in Europe and the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Adrienne Vogt | Mike Hayes | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Firefighters rush to extinguish a wildfire burning near the village of Vlyhada, Greece, on Wednesday. Stelios Misinas/ReutersSouthern Europe is experiencing very high temperatures while wildfires continue in many areas. The fire danger is expected to increase in Greece and Switzerland, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). A series of heavy thunderstorms hit a large part of the northern Italian region of Trentino Alto Adige on Tuesday afternoon. Two firefighting aircraft of the Italian firefighters' service have been deployed to the northwest of Athens, the force said on Twitter.

Persons: Stelios Misinas, SkyTG24, Gabrielius Landsbergis Organizations: Reuters, Milan, Twitter, Lithuanian Locations: Vlyhada, Greece, Reuters Southern Europe, Switzerland, Italy, Turin, Sardinia, Italian, Trentino Alto Adige, Bitsch, Valais, EU, Athens, Lithuania

☆ Switzerland fights to contain forest fire near Italy border as winds pick up
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Denis Balibouse | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BITSCH, Switzerland, July 18 (Reuters) - Swiss firefighters on Tuesday were battling a forest fire that has forced more than 200 people to evacuate, and authorities warned winds were making the blaze difficult to contain. The fire broke out on Monday on the forested flank of a mountain in Bitsch in the Valais canton near the Italian border. An helicopter carries water to a wildfire on the flank of a mountain in Bitsch near Brig, Switzerland, July 18, 2023. REUTERS/Denis BalibouseThe situation could deteriorate further if winds grow stronger, said Adrienne Bellwald, spokesperson for the cantonal police. Its Federal Office for the Environment has warned forest fires could become more frequent, especially in summer, due to an increase in hot, dry weather caused by climate change.

Persons: Mario Schaller, Denis Balibouse, Adrienne Bellwald, Noele Illien, Emma Farge, Gabrielle Tétrault, Farber, Janet Lawrence, Conor Humphries, Bernadette Baum Organizations: Helicopters, REUTERS, Federal Office, Environment, Reuters, World Meteorological Organization, Thomson Locations: Switzerland, Bitsch, Valais, Brig, Europe, Asia, United States

☆ Factbox: Europe sees another year of droughts and wildfires
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Last year, heat waves resulted in over 61,600 heat-related fatalities across 35 European countries and triggered devastating wildfires. Below is a list of the most recent blazes and heat-related warnings issued in Europe. **********CROATIAA bushfire near the coastal town of Sibenik quickly spread on July 13, fuelled by strong southerly winds. Emergency services were also dealing with fires on the island of Evia, east of Athens, and Aigio, southwest of Athens. RUSSIAIn central Russia's Urals region, in the small village of Shaidurikha near Yekaterinburg, wildfires spread on July 12 and caused significant damage.

Persons: BRGM, Rhodes, El, Dina Kartit, Gaëlle Sheehan, Piotr Lipiński, Alexandra Hudson, Milla Nissi Organizations: Firefighters, Flames, El Pais, Caldera, SWITZERLAND Swiss, Swiss, TURKEY, Directorate of Forestry, Thomson Locations: Europe, Sicily, CROATIA, Sibenik, Grebastica, FRANCE, Nouvelle, Aquitaine, Occitanie, Grand Est, Bouches, Du, Rhone, Corsica, France, GREECE, Corfu, Evia, Athens, Cyprus, Israel, Italy, ITALY, Calabria, Italian, Rome, Lazio, PORTUGAL Mainland Portugal, May, RUSSIA, Russia's, Shaidurikha, Yekaterinburg, SPAIN, La Palma, Spanish, Spain, Bitsch, Valais, Turkey's, Hatay, Mersin, Canakkale, Turkish

☆ Swiss police evacuate villages due to wildfire
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

GENEVA, July 17 (Reuters) - Swiss police ordered the evacuation of several mountain villages late on Monday as a forest fire spread, while it was not immediately clear how many people were affected. It later added that three other villages were to be evacuated and warned of rockfalls. Air Zermatt, which operates four of the helicopters, said efforts to extinguish the fire would continue through the night. Valais police posted pictures showing a helicopter dangling a water cannon above a forest fire in the afternoon. loadingThe area is affected by the same Mediterranean heatwave affecting southern Europe, with temperatures set to exceed 30 Celsius in parts of the Valais canton this week, forecasts show.

Persons: Emma Farge, Gabrielle Tetrault, Farber, Josie Kao Organizations: Swiss, Twitter, rockfalls, Air Zermatt, Thomson Locations: GENEVA, Valais, Ried, Morel, Brig, Air, Europe

☆ American cacti are rapidly colonizing the slopes of the Swiss Alps as snow disappears, says report
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Prickly pear cacti, native to the arid regions of the Americas, are now thriving in the Swiss Alps. The plants are typically seen in hot, dry areas, such as the Grand Canyon. So, diminishing snow cover provides a fertile environment for them to thrive. Snow cover in the Alps has been plummeting. Another study said the number of days where there is snow cover under 2,600 feet has halved since 1970.

☆ VIDEO: Cel mai faimos vârf muntos din Elveția începe să se descompună
▼ + stars: | 2020-11-08 | by ( ) www.jurnal.md time to read: +4 min

În același timp, Brienz se confruntă și cu pericolul de a fi complet îngropat de o posibilă alunecare masivă de teren. Nu ar exista nicio modalitate de a opri o alunecare de teren majoră. Permafrostul se dezgheațăPe cel mai faimos vârf din Elveția, Matterhorn, cercetătorii încearcă să găsească răspuns exact la această întrebare. Așadar, poate „vocea” muntelui să anunțe o alunecare de teren? Încă nu, spune Jan Beutel.

Persons: Kurt Spring, Jan, Jan Beutel Organizations: Universitatea din Locations: Bolovani, Graubünden, Evolène, Valais, Elveția, Matterhorn, Universitatea din Innsbruck

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