Global warming threatens dozens of Swiss mountain huts: Experts

Baku, October 29, AZERTAC Global warming is increasingly destabilizing the Swiss Alps as thawing permafrost and retreating glaciers threaten mountain infrastructure, affecting nearly half of the Swiss Alpine huts, according to Anadolu Agency. The Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) is being forced to relocate certain huts and spend millions on new facilities and protective measures, news outlet Swiss Info reported. Cracks had been steadily spreading and widening in the Mutthorn mountain hut in the Bernese Oberland until it was closed in 2021 as it faced danger of collapsing due to thawing permafrost.

"We knew this hut probably wouldn’t last another hundred years. But the fact that it collapsed so quickly really scared us," Fabienne Notter, president of the Weissenstein section of the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC), told Swiss public broadcaster RTS. Of the 152 SAC huts dotted across the Swiss Alps, 65 are in areas potentially threatened by thawing permafrost. Access routes are also becoming more hazardous due to rockfalls, mudslides and ground movement. "We cannot predict what will fall or when. But one thing is certain it will collapse," said Nils Hahlen, head of natural hazards for canton of Bern. The Aletsch Glacier is…