‘I have been up there a fair amount of times and I have never seen liquid water up there,’ says mountaineer. Adam Forrest @adamtomforrest mountaineer, has captured the formation of an “alarming” lake high in the French Alps after glacial snow melted in the intense heatwave that gripped central Europe in late June.
Bryan Mestre discovered the large pool of water at an altitude of 3,400m in the Mount Blanc mountain range – claiming the unusual sight was a worrying sign.
“Time to sound the alarm,” said Bryan Mestre. “Only 10 days of extreme heat were enough to collapse, melt and form a lake at the base of the Dent du Géant and the Aiguilles Marbrées.”
He added: “This is truly alarming … glaciers all over the world are melting at an exponential speed.”
Sharing the image on Instagram, the French rock climber said he took the photo on 28 June – only 10 days after fellow mountaineer Paul Todhunter captured the same area covered in snow.
“Needless to say, the lake was a real surprise,” Bryan Mestre told the IFLScience website.
“I have been up there a fair amount of times, in June, July and even August, and I have never seen liquid water up there,” he added.
According to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), last month was the hottest June ever recorded on Earth.
Data released by the satellite agency showed Europe’s average temperatures were more than 2C above normal, and temperatures were between 6C and 10C above normal over most of France, Germany and northern Spain during the final days of the month.
