It is now a ghost village, which has become inaccessible by the road blocked by firefighters and carabinieri. Planpincieux, an Italian village perched at 1,580 m on the southern slope of the Mont-Blanc massif, has been partly emptied of its inhabitants since Thursday August 6 and until the end of the weekend. Its glacier which overlooks it, unstable, has turned into a public danger. 500,000 cubic meters threaten him like a sword of Damocles on the village. In the event of rupture, it is the mass equivalent to 150 Olympic swimming pools which would surge, carrying everything in its path. "It is a critical, potentially dangerous situation," warns the mayor of Courmayeur, Stefano Miserocchi, on whom the locality depends. Even if the situation was "slightly improving" this Saturday morning.
"It's brutal to leave overnight," complains Tommaso Rabbia, one of the evacuees. He is staying with his parents in Courmayeur, pending the lifting of the alert. “I can't wait to get back to my home, to get back to normal life. Jacopo Nitri also had to evacuate his house and his small hotel. " It is a disaster. It kills the summer season. I have cascading cancellations. Of course, you can't play with these things, you have to be vigilant. But we're not going to leave Val Ferret, we have to live with the glacier. "
"It can happen from one minute to another like in a month"
On a map communicated by civil protection, a red zone delimits a corridor where the avalanche of ice would directly flow. It is in this very sensitive sector that the chalets are located, from which 15 inhabitants and 70 tourists were evacuated. Another yellow area, larger, materializes the avalanche blast that can cause damage. On the edge of these two areas, some people decide to stay, despite everything.
"This is not the first time that we are on alert", specifies Alberto, a holidaymaker who has been coming to the hamlet of Mayen for 37 years, a few hundred meters downstream from the evacuated village. “In September and October 2019 there was already a risk of collapse. For our second home, we are not too worried because it is at the edge of the yellow zone. But in the red zone, I have a friend who is afraid of having to leave his chalet for good in the next few years, because of the increasingly frequent risks. "
In the part of Planpincieux sheltered from avalanche risks, Gianna, 81, has her binoculars pointed at the ice giant. “I spend my day watching if the glacier is moving, seeing if there are any warning signs. But for now it remains very calm. It can happen from one minute to the next like in a month, so we take our troubles patiently. "
A huge crevasse 20 meters wide
The Planpincieux glacier is chaotic by nature, streaked with numerous crevasses. Placed on a fairly steep slope, its flow speed has accelerated under the waves of scorching temperatures of recent summers. A direct effect of global warming. It has therefore been monitored since 2013 because of the danger it poses to human lives below.
VIDEO. The deconfined Mont-Blanc
For Christian Vincent, glaciologist at the Grenoble Institute of Environmental Geosciences (IGE), “this sudden risk is linked to the circulation of water in the glacier and on its rocky bed. The weather was fairly cool last week which reduced the amount of meltwater. Then the recent return of a heat wave again melted a lot of snow at high altitude, leading to a sudden increase in the water circulation under the glacier. It is this contrast and the accumulation of water that would have thrilled the sliding phenomenon. The water indeed acts as a lubricant between the ice and the rock, ”he explains. A huge crevasse 20 meters wide now marks the inexorable separation between the glacier tongue and the upper part of the glacier.
Other alpine glaciers at risk
The few people who still pass through the Val Ferret valley are climbers who have come down from the Grande Jorasses, a classic route on this side of the massif. “We find ourselves stuck at the bottom of the valley while our car is in Courmayeur,” exasperated Steffi, who had come from Andorra with two other friends to take advantage of the mountaineering routes. “We will have to ask the firefighters to take us back down by the road that is cut off. "
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers. Learn more
The town of Courmayeur and the entrance to the nearby Mont-Blanc tunnel are not affected by the possible fall. On the other hand, on the side of the traders, we are worried. “Customers have called me to find out if there is no risk in coming to eat,” says Christian Casella, owner of a pizzeria in Courmayeur. “They were afraid of the fall of the glacier which is however further in the valley. It decreases attendance when we have already suffered from confinement. "
The Planpincieux glacier is not a unique case in the Alps. The risk of collapse affects other alpine glaciers until it materialized on Friday in Valais Switzerland, where the lower part of the Tourtemagne glacier broke away, producing a huge avalanche of snow and ice, without causing any casualties.
