Volunteers collect 250 kilograms of garbage from the Morteratsch glacier

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• During a clean-up operation in a glacier area in the Engadin, volunteers collected 250 kilograms of garbage.
• Among other things, the cleaners came across old crampons and skis and the remains of an old measuring station.
• The volunteers set off with garbage bags from the Diavolezza mountain station in the Engadin in Graubünden.

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During a clean-up operation in the glacier area, around 90 volunteers collected 250 kilograms of garbage in one day. This included a felt hat and a rucksack, as well as cigarette and sweet wrappers, according to the Diavolezza Lagalb AG mountain railway company. Some of the items have probably been lying in the ice for years and are now coming to light because the glacier ice is melting rapidly.

The volunteers set off with garbage bags from the Diavolezza mountain station in the Engadin in Graubünden. Mountain guides led them safely across the Pers and Morteratsch glaciers. It was the third clean-up operation by the mountain railroads.

Glacier is melting rapidly

"The Morteratsch Glacier is the most voluminous glacier in the Eastern Alps," the company announced. However, it is melting at an enormous rate.

"In the last 150 years, the glacier tongue has retreated by around three kilometers and the entire glacier has lost two thirds of its volume." The excavators came across old crampons and skis and the remains of an old measuring station.

Engadin wood sculptor Nora Engels wants to turn well-preserved finds into wooden works of art. They are to be auctioned off next year for the benefit of glacier conservation projects.