The epic Furchetta and Sass Rigais peaks in Seceda, the Dolomites in the Italian Alps. Photo / 123rf
Tourists are dying in the Italian Alps in record numbers as soaring heat drives inexperienced hikers into the cool but dangerous mountains.
Huge numbers of visitors have flocked to the Alps and the Dolomites this year as Italy baked in temperatures exceeding 40C.
However, they are often novices with little knowledge of mountain conditions and turn up wearing inadequate clothing and footwear.
So far this year, more than 80 hikers have died, many of them slipping and falling to their deaths from steep paths. The main summer break, in August, is not even under way.
The Tre Cime di Lavaredo mountain in the Dolomites is a popular place to go for hikers and tourists
“I can’t remember a summer like this, with so many fatalities,” said Maurizio Dellantonio, the national head of the Italian Alpine Rescue.
“We’ve had 83 fatalities and five people missing just in the first month of the summer holidays. That is nearly three fatalities a day. We are carrying out 20% more rescues compared to the average.”
Dellantonio said that last week, a young Italian chef in his 30s had finished his evening shift at a restaurant, headed straight to the mountains and embarked on a hike to the top of a peak called Cima Palla Bianca, 11,800ft (3595m) above sea level.
He reached an altitude of 10,200ft in the early hours of the morning, by which time he was freezing cold and called the emergency services. When rescuers reached him, they found he was wearing a pair of trainers rather than proper hiking boots.
Italian newspapers have been full of images of overcrowding in the mountains, including a photo of hundreds of walkers queuing for a cable car to take them to the top of Seceda, in the German-speaking South Tyrol province of the Dolomites.
“There are people everywhere; the hiking trails are packed. It all started in June when the schools broke up.
“Down in the lowlands, you can’t breathe because of the heat. In the mountains, the weather is ideal. The weather is changing,” Dellantonio told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
Sixty per cent of fatalities were walkers, while the rest were climbers, mountain bikers, and paragliders.
“Among the hikers, there are people who are not in good shape, but they go off into the mountains all the same. A lot of people don’t know their own limits,” he said.
Tourists venturing into the mountains are not only unprepared and foolhardy – they are often ungrateful. “Half the people we rescue refuse to pay the cost of the operation. Even when we have saved their lives,” he said.
The youngest victim so far was a 15-year-old French boy. The teenager, named as Liam Rezac from Brittany, was hiking with his family in the Val d’Aosta region of northern Italy last week.
When his parents complained that they were tired, he decided to forge ahead alone. But he got lost and is believed to have slipped and fallen to his death at an altitude of 9350ft (2850m).
Social media is also to blame for people’s hubris, luring them to locations and altitudes that are beyond their capabilities.
“Someone posts a photo online and writes, ‘I made it to the summit’. The next day, other people will have a go, even if they are not properly prepared. I would also say that kids today are not as tough as they once were.
“The mountains are a marvellous place. But the people who are dying are not paying them enough respect,” Dellantonio said.
While there have long been protests against over-tourism in places such as Venice, Rome, and Florence, the anger is now spreading to the mountains.
Last year, the words “Tourists Go Home” were scrawled on a rock at the popular Tre Cime di Lavaredo mountain massif in the Dolomites.
In February this year, the words “Too Much” were written with red aerosol paint in snow at the entrance to a cable car in the Alpe di Siusi ski area, also in the Dolomites.
“We need new regulations,” said Michil Costa, an environmentalist and hotelier who lives in the Dolomites.
“During the summer, mountain passes should be closed to traffic. The number of hotel beds needs to be limited. Without brakes [on overtourism], we are dead. The effects of mass tourism are destroying the very places that tourists are coming to see.”
Violent storms, attributed to climate change, are producing torrential downpours that damage paths and make them dangerous.
Inexperienced hikers fail to check the weather properly or take into account local conditions.
Among the recent fatalities was Ugo Fattore, a 59-year-old architect from Venice, who died after a fall in a valley called Val Pramper in the Dolomites.
In the Piedmont region, at the western end of the Italian Alps, a 21-year-old hiker named Gioele Fortina died after slipping and falling from a path. A keen walker, he worked on a lavender farm.
A German woman died last week after plunging 300ft onto rocks at an altitude of 7200ft near the village of Gressoney-Saint-Jean in Val d’Aosta.
Earlier this month, an officer in the Carabinieri police, who was a keen Alpinist, died after falling 160ft while climbing in Piedmont. Enrico Bolla, 55, was reported to have had years of climbing experience.
The list of fatalities includes an Australian Base jumper, James Nowland, 42, who died after leaping from a mountain peak in the Dolomites during a Base-jumping competition.
Tributes were paid to Nowland, who was from Perth in Western Australia. His wife, Candice, said: “James was a greatly respected member of the Base-jumping community, having done the sport for over 10 years. His family meant everything to him.”