As Glaciers Melt, Alpine Mountains Lose Their Glue, Threatening Swiss Village

Tourists walking along a stream originating from the Lower Grindelwald Glacier in Switzerland. The glacier once extended through the gorge. (Christoph Bangert for The New York Times)

By JOHN TAGLIABUE, NYT
Published: May 29, 2013

GRINDELWALD, Switzerland — Marco Bomio recalls that bright Sunday morning in June 2006 as if it were yesterday. Mr. Bomio, 59, a school principal and mountain guide, attended a religious service on a high mountain meadow to mark the founding of a local guide group.

“Suddenly we saw this immense cloud,” he said over coffee in a wood chalet typical of this Alpine village. “Normally, it might have been snow. But in June?”

“Then we saw that it wasn’t snow,” he went on. “It was rock dust: part of the mountain had come down.”

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