Alps

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That's Not Ice Covering a Melting Swiss Glacier

Rhone Glacier's white blankets used to reflect sunlight

(Newser) - With the coming of spring, people will be putting away the extra blankets that kept them warm through a chilly winter. Others in Switzerland will be blanketing a glacier. As E&E News reports, huge white blankets of canvas will be used to cover the Rhone Glacier in the Swiss...

Man, 65, Saves Busload of Tourists From Tragedy

Police laud passenger's quick reflexes after driver collapses in Austrian Alps

(Newser) - A French tourist is being praised for saving a busload of fellow passengers from "catastrophe" after the driver passed out. The bus was on a winding road in the Austrian Alps near Schwaz when the 76-year-old driver collapsed, the BBC reports. As the bus was careening toward a precipice,...

5 Climbers Fall to Deaths After Rope Comes Loose

Another 3 climbers died on Italian glacier

(Newser) - Sunday was a deadly day in the Austrian Alps: Five roped-together German climbers fell to their deaths after a rope apparently came loose, the BBC reports. Police say one of the climbers slipped and pulled down the rest of the group of six men, who plunged more than 600 feet...

Glacier Yields 3 Roped-Together Bodies

Climbers vanished on Mont Blanc 22 years ago

(Newser) - Western Europe's highest mountain is giving up more of its dead as the Mont Blanc glacier shifts and retreats. In the latest grim find, a French climber on the Italian side of the peak spotted the bodies of three roped-together climbers believed to have died in 1995, AFP reports....

American Dies in Fall From Matterhorn

And yet he may one day return

(Newser) - Patrick Harper loved the Matterhorn so much that his ashes will one day be spread there—at the site of his death. The 52-year-old mountain climber and engineer from Butler, Pa., had been repeating his 2007 ascent of the 14,692-foot mountain in the Swiss Alps in order to recreate...

'Air Surgery' Saves 110 Trapped in Cable Cars Overnight

Tangled cables stopped the cars initially

(Newser) - Dozens of tourists, including a 10-year-old child, were safely rescued Friday after being trapped in cable cars dangling above the slopes of Mont Blanc in the Alps overnight. The mountain rescue service in the French city of Chamonix says cables entangled Thursday were repaired, and the cable cars were able...

110 People Trapped in Cable Cars Above Alps

They're being evacuated by helicopter

(Newser) - A series of cable cars became stuck over the Mont Blanc massif in the Alps, trapping 110 people who were being evacuated by helicopter on Thursday, French officials said. Chamonix Mayor Eric Fournier said that "there's nothing fundamentally to fear." Fournier, who spoke to BFM-TV, said that...

Here&#39;s How an Ancient Iceman Kept Warm
Here's How an
Ancient Iceman
Kept Warm
STUDY SAYS
Aug 19, 2016 10:48 AM CDT

Here's How an Ancient Iceman Kept Warm

Clothing made from bear, sheep, goat, deer, cattle—you name it, Oetzi wore it

(Newser) - Scientists say Oetzi the Iceman , whose mummified body has been studied extensively since it was discovered on a glacier near the Italian-Austrian border in 1991, wore clothes made of brown bear pelt and roe deer when he died in the Alps 5,300 years ago. Researchers in Italy used genetic...

Man Stabs Woman, Her 3 Girls at French Alps Resort

The suspect was on vacation with his wife and children

(Newser) - Authorities in southern France have detained a Moroccan man they said stabbed a woman and her three daughters Tuesday at an Alps resort, the AP reports. Jean-Marc Duprat, a deputy mayor for the town of Laragne-Monteglin in the Hautes-Alpes region, says the mother and her girls, aged 8, 12, and...

Swiss Inaugurate $12B Rail Tunnel, World's Longest

It runs more than 35 miles underneath the Alps

(Newser) - Just like Hannibal in ancient times, Swiss engineers have conquered the Alps, the AP reports. European dignitaries on Wednesday inaugurated the 35.4-mile Gotthard Railway Tunnel , the world's longest railway tunnel and a major engineering achievement deep under the Alps' snow-capped peaks. It took 17 years to build at...

World's Longest, Deepest Tunnel Unveiled

The $12B tunnel is more than 35 miles long

(Newser) - The 31-mile "Chunnel" connecting England to mainland Europe was no small engineering feat, but Switzerland has stepped up the game. On June 1, it will begin testing trains in the world's longest, deepest tunnel—and the $12 billion Gotthard Base Tunnel cuts through solid rock as deep as...

Snowboard Champ Killed in Avalanche

Estelle Balet was filming at the time

(Newser) - Estelle Balet, a 21-year-old champion snowboarder, was killed in an avalanche Tuesday morning. The Swiss athlete was in the Alps, filming above the village of Orsieres in Switzerland, when the avalanche struck. Despite the fact that she was wearing safety equipment, including a helmet and an airbag meant to keep...

Horse Manure Helps Crack Ancient Military Mystery

Researchers think they know where Hannibal crossed the Alps

(Newser) - Ace history students might remember that Hannibal led his Carthagian army across the Alps around 200BC and soundly defeated the Roman army in one of the most epic military maneuvers of all time. But not even actual historians can tell you with any degree of certainty where Hannibal crossed those...

American 'Speed Flyer' Disappears in Swiss Alps

Official search for Harrison Fast was called off Monday

(Newser) - Family and friends are launching their own search for a 28-year-old Colorado man who disappeared Saturday while speed flying in Switzerland, KDVR reports. According to the AP , speed flyers use special parachutes to fly close to the ground at high speeds while descending mountains. Mechanical engineer Harrison Fast was speed...

'Massive' Avalanche Kills 5 Skiers in Austrian Alps

Two others were injured

(Newser) - Police in Austria say five people were killed Saturday when a "massive" avalanche in the Austrian Alps struck skiers from the Czech Republic taking part in a freeriding camp, the AP reports. Two other skiers were injured and 10 were rescued unharmed, Tirol police spokesperson Helmut Schuetz said. He...

22-Year-Old Vies to Be First Woman to Scale 'Murder Wall'

Climber Sasha DiGiulian trying to reach peak of dangerous Swiss mountain

(Newser) - Between semesters at Columbia University, Sasha DiGiulian is summering at the Mordwand in the Swiss Alps, which sounds like a lovely getaway until you find out "Mordwand" is German for "murder wall." Per CBS News , the 22-year-old world-class climber is trying to become the first woman to...

Alps Crash Site 'Freakishly Close' to 1953 Disaster

Air France plane went down less than a mile away

(Newser) - As investigators head to the remote site in the French Alps where Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed yesterday, aviation experts are remembering an air disaster that happened in what the International Business Times calls a "freakishly close" location near the village of Barcelonnette. On Sept. 1, 1953, an Air France...

GPS Fail Takes Tourists on 750-Mile Detour
GPS Fail Takes Tourists
on 750-Mile Detour
in case you missed it
Mar 14, 2015 7:00 PM CDT

GPS Fail Takes Tourists on 750-Mile Detour

Bus driver went to La Plagne in southern France, not La Plagne in the Alps

(Newser) - A group of 50 Belgian tourists headed to the Alps for a ski holiday were slightly confused when they woke up from their overnight bus ride and found themselves surrounded by … vineyards in the south of France. The snow hadn't melted at La Plagne ski resort, their true...

Teen Missing in Alps Found Waist-Deep in Snow

American skier was missing for more than 48 hours

(Newser) - Eleven skiers have died in the Swiss Alps over the last few days, and police say it's a miracle that 19-year-old American Mark Doose wasn't No. 12. Doose disappeared while skiing near the Diablerets resort on Sunday and survived more than 48 hours until rescuers found him on...

Snow, Ice Hit French Alps, Strand 15K on Roads

At least 1 driver dead in wintry mess

(Newser) - A white Christmas may have proven elusive Stateside, but a burst of snow and ice in the French Alps have stranded some 15,000 vehicles, reports the BBC , prompting Paris to issue its second-highest weather alert and urge drivers to "exercise the utmost caution." One driver died after...

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