As rising temperatures rapidly melt glaciers in the Italian Alps, hikers are stumbling across a dangerous legacy: unexploded weapons frozen in ice for more than a century. After mountaineers reported seeing munitions in the Primiero Valley, specialist soldiers from the Italian army's Julia Alpine brigade carried out extensive sweeps across the Dolomites, recovering and neutralising 250 explosive devices this summer alone.
The recovered weapons included 75-millimetre Italian artillery shells and French-made mortar bombs left behind from the "White War." Between 1915 and 1918, Italian and Austro-Hungarian soldiers fought a brutal campaign across the bitterly cold mountain terrain, leaving behind supplies and unspent ammunition that were eventually sealed beneath snow and ice.
Experts note that these dangerous relics are reappearing because Alpine glaciers are retreating at an accelerating pace. Stefano Morosini, a professor at the University of Bergamo who coordinates heritage projects at Stelvio National Park, warned that more artefacts emerge at the end of each summer as heatwaves persist. Although more than a century has passed, the ice has preserved the explosives so well that many remain fully active and hazardous.
The rapidly shrinking ice is making glacier routes increasingly unpredictable and dangerous for visitors. Officials have warned hikers and mountaineers never to touch any suspected military device, regardless of where it is found, and to alert the police immediately.