Melting glaciers in Dolomites reveal cache of first world war munitions

The devices, which included Italian artillery shells and French mortar bombs, were removed and defused by the army's Julia Alpine brigade. The weapons originated from the white war, a battle between the Austro-Hungarian army and Italian troops across treacherous terrain between 1915 and 1918.

More than a century later, hikers reported several sightings of bombs during the summer, mostly in the area of Canal San Bovo in the Primiero Valley in eastern Trentino. The soldiers then conducted an extensive sweep across high-altitude and glacier locations in the Trentino Alto Adige region of the Dolomites.

They recovered and neutralized 250 explosives, including '18 Italian 75mm artillery shells and 37 Thevetot mortar shells – a French-made device that was also supplied to the Italian royal army during the first world war', according to the Julia Alpine brigade.

Climate change impact

This is not the first time that relics of the white war have emerged from melting glaciers, whose retreat has accelerated over more than a decade. The warming climate is revealing dangerous artifacts preserved for over a century.

Historical significance

Fought mainly in the Dolomites of Trentino Alto-Adige and the Alps of the Lombardy region, the white war was a period of history frozen in time until the 1990s, when global heating started to reveal perfectly preserved relics, including weapons, sledges, letters and diaries.

A wooden barracks that had been dug into a cave on Mount Scorluzzo reappeared in 2015 after ice sealed it for almost a century. The shelter contained beds made of straw, clothes, lanterns, newspapers, postcards, coins, and tinned food, all well preserved.

The white war is thought to have claimed more than a million lives, with most soldiers killed by avalanches, falls, or hypothermia. Dozens of corpses, some still in uniform, have emerged from melting ice over the past 15 years.

Safety concerns

The advice to hikers and mountaineers is to 'never touch any type of explosive device you might find, regardless of where it is located' and to promptly report any discovery to police. The intense summer heat is making glacier access increasingly dangerous.

Eleven people died when a huge mass of the Marmolada glacier broke off in 2022. Morosini emphasized the growing risks: 'It is becoming more and more impossible to access the glaciers during the summer because of the very long heatwave at high altitude.' A white war museum is scheduled to open in Bormio in June 2027 to display these historical artifacts.