The municipality of Courmayeur, in the Italian Alps, announced on Sunday "the lifting of all security measures" adopted to deal with the risk of collapse of a large block of the Planpincieux glacier, where the situation has returned to normal .
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An estimated volume of ice of 500,000 cubic meters
The latest information gathered on the glacier having "confirmed a return to the usual risk parameters", the closure of the Val Ferret valley (below the glacier), ordered last Wednesday, has been lifted, the town hall announced in a press release. Car traffic in the small valley is again authorized, as is the return home of the fifteen evacuated residents.
A volume of ice estimated at 500,000 cubic meters - the "size of Milan Cathedral" - threatened to collapse, according to local authorities, who had ordered Wednesday evening the evacuation for 72 hours of a "red zone" a few hundred meters wide below, in a part of the valley that is sparsely inhabited and especially frequented by hikers in this summer season.
The alert aroused the incomprehension of the inhabitants
In Val d'Aosta, the small valley of Val Ferret is close to the famous resort of Courmayeur and the entrance to the Mont Blanc tunnel, between France and Italy. The area concerned was nevertheless located at least four kilometers from the entrance to the tunnel, and even more from Courmayeur, where the situation has remained perfectly normal in recent days.
"Evacuation was necessary and inevitable because of the ice risk," Courmayeur town hall reiterated on Sunday. The alert had aroused the incomprehension of the inhabitants and the criticisms of many tourism professionals, worried about the repercussions on their activity barely recovering from the Covid-19 epidemic.
Tourist activities have not stopped
The threat of glacier collapse "was localized and affected a small part of the territory (of the municipality), while in the rest of this same territory, the valleys and the municipality of Courmayeur, tourist activities took place in absolute normality. ", underlined the town hall, regretting in passing" the alarmist tone "of certain media.
In September and October 2019, the Planpincieux glacier had already threatened to partially collapse, over a portion of nearly 250,000 cubic meters. Surveillance measures have since been put in place.