Melting Alpine Glacier Uncovers A Long-Lost Military Barracks Frozen In Time

During the conflict often referred to as the Great War, this spot in the Italian Alps became one of its most brutal battlegrounds. But there are no museums or plaques to mark where these struggles took place. There is instead a realm of ice and snow, where glaciers stretch for miles across the frozen landscape.

So what events unfolded on this cold and lonely plateau high above Europe? And what relics from this dark period of history remain? Thanks to the perils of climate change, the ice on top of Mount Scorluzzo is melting – revealing a cache of historic relics that have lain buried since 1918.

In 2017 researchers stepped into a cave that had remained sealed by the elements for generations. And what they found has shed a fascinating light on those who fought and died in the so-called White War. It means the stories of these men are making their way down from the mountains at last.

Located close to the border of Switzerland and Italy, Mount Scorluzzo towers more than 10,000 feet above sea level, overlooking one of the highest paved roads in the Alps. Compared to other peaks in the region, it is considered relatively easy to climb, and mountaineers have been conquering the summit since 1857.

But it’s not just climbers who have ascended to this snow-capped peak over the years. Before the outbreak of World War I, the Stelvio Pass, which runs through the Eastern Alps some 1,000 feet beneath the summit of Mount Scorluzzo, formed an important border. On one side, you see, sat the Kingdom of Italy, while the other marked the western edge of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

Since the signing of the Treaty of Vienna in 1866 both sides had shared this border in relative peace. The two nations were allies, in fact, when hostilities broke out in July 1914. But as the brutal and complex conflict unfolded across Europe, old tensions between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire rose to the surface.

Thus in 1915 Italy signed the Treaty of London, breaking free from the Triple Alliance it had formed with Austro-Hungary and Germany. So the two countries on either side of the Stelvio Pass were at war. And Mount Scorluzzo sat in the middle of territory which offered attractive advantages for each side. 

So it wasn’t long before the fighting arrived in the Alps. On a front stretching for over 400 miles across the mountains, soldiers from both Italy and Austro-Hungary battled each other in what became known as the White War. And for the next three years they continued, squaring off against each other in one of the most hostile terrains on planet Earth.

In places such as Mount Scorluzzo, the conflict meant a swift transformation from Alpine paradise to violent battleground. Where keen mountaineers had once conquered its slopes, inexperienced soldiers were forced to scale the icy peaks, weighed down with heavy equipment as they tackled the challenging conditions.

“Soldiers had to fight against the extreme environment, fight against the snow or the avalanches, but also fight against the enemy,” Stelvio National Park historian Stefano Morosini told CNN in May 2021. At times, the temperature dropped below -40°F, and blizzards often raged across the mountains as men fought to find their way.

And governments struggled to deliver food and other resources to the soldiers struggling on the front line. Starved and frozen, the men battled to survive. Plus experts believe that the harsh environment in the heights of the Alps killed more soldiers during the White War than any combat engagements. 

In a 1917 article for the now-defunct newspaper New York World, E. Alexander Powell described the difficulties faced by soldiers during the White War. He wrote, “On no front, not on the sun-scorched plains of Mesopotamia, nor in the frozen Mazurian marshes, nor in the blood-soaked mud of Flanders, does the fighting man lead so arduous an existence as up here on the roof of the world.”

Then in November 1918 the Italian forces launched a successful attack on the Tonale Pass, some 40 miles south of Mount Scorluzzo. As the troops secured a victory over Austro-Hungary, Allied nations across the world were following suit. And less than two weeks later, the horrors of World War I finally came to an end. 

High above the Stelvio Pass, the last of the soldiers descended Mount Scorluzzo, turning their backs on the lofty battlefield. But they didn’t exactly tidy up before they departed. They instead left a number of relics scattered across the peaks of the Italian Alps, mementos from a conflict that claimed hundreds of lives.

In many places, former battlefields have been preserved and transformed into museums and monuments. But in the peaks of the Italian Alps, there is little passing tourist trade. So the objects left behind on Mount Scorluzzo remained where they were, gradually buried by ice and snow.

Yet the effects of climate change are now causing glaciers to retreat – revealing echoes of the White War for the first time in 100 years. Look at 2017 – for instance – the remains of an Italian soldier were found on Presena glacier to the south of Mount Scorluzzo. Using documents found alongside the body, experts were able to trace the man’s relatives, securing him a proper burial decades later. 

Was it an equally gruesome relic, then, that was found on the summit of Mount Scorluzzo? Because researchers have long known that at least one group of Austro-Hungarian soldiers were stationed here during the White War. But for decades any excavation efforts had been hampered by a solid wall of ice.

The world, though, is warming up, and in 2017 the glacier on top of Mount Scorluzzo retreated further than it had done in a century. And as the ice melted, the entrance to a cave was revealed. So officials at Italy’s White War Museum dispatched a team of archaeologists to take a closer look.

The melting ice had revealed something astonishing: military barracks that once housed a group of Austro-Hungarian soldiers during the war. The structure had been simply locked up and left at the end of the conflict – with much of its contents still intact. It means the site now offers a fascinating glimpse into life on the mountains during World War I.

“The barracks is a time capsule of the White War that helps us to understand the extreme, starving conditions that the soldiers experienced,” Morosini told The Guardian in May 2021. “The knowledge we’re able to gather today from the relics is a positive consequence of the negative fact of climate change.” 

Researchers were able to retrieve some 300 artifacts from the historic location, come April 2021. Among them were the soldiers’ personal belongings, such as postcards, letters and clothes, as well as coins, lanterns, newspapers and more. But the discovery also highlighted the harsh realities of life inside the Mount Scorluzzo barracks.

The soldiers, it seems, slept on uncomfortable beds made from straw, while tucking into tinned food. With rations often running low, however, they clearly turned to other sources of nutrition. Yep, the team found a number of hollow animal bones, suggesting that the men stationed here had eaten the marrow.

Echoing Morsini’s comments, a statement from the White War Museum commented on the preserved relics. It read, “The findings in the cave on Mount Scorluzzo give us, after over a hundred years, a slice of life at over 3,000 meters above sea level, where time stopped on November 3, 1918, when the last Austrian soldier closed the door and rushed downhill.”

Morsini told CNN that the site of the barracks is functioning as a “sort of open air museum.” But as the artifacts are brought down from the mountain and sent for preservation, an impressive collection is beginning to form. Because there are plans to exhibit the objects at a World War I museum in Bormio, Italy, in 2022.

The finds on Mount Scorluzzo, though, are just part of the story. Because the mountains of Italy have been gradually giving up their wartime secrets since the 1990s. From the western region of Lombardy to the Dolomites in the east, melting glaciers have revealed evocative relics from a time when these peaks were crawling with soldiers.

Some of these artifacts relate to everyday life in the mountains – sledges, weapons and even diaries, reported The Guardian. But others were far more gruesome by nature. In the summer of 2020, for example, a hiker in the Adamello glacier region discovered the body of an Italian soldier, still draped in his country’s flag.

“A corpse is found every two or three years, usually in places where there was fighting on the glacier,” the White War Museum’s Marco Ghizzoni told The Guardian. But not everything found in these mountains dates back to the White War. Take 1991 for example: a pair of hikers stumbled upon human remains in the Öztal Alps between Austria and Italy.

Retreating ice had already begun to reveal relics from the White War, at this point. And although climate change also fuelled this discovery, it couldn’t have been more different to the previous finds. Rather than the remains of a soldier who perished a century ago, this body was around 5,300 years old, dating back to the Chalcolithic era.

Dubbed Özti the Iceman, the remains offered scientists an unprecedented glimpse into life during the Copper Age. And ever since the discovery, the prehistoric human’s tattoos, clothing and possessions have inspired much speculation. For Morosini, it seems, there are parallels between this incredible find and the artifacts uncovered on Mount Scorluzzo.

“The Özti discovery was huge,” Morosini told The Guardian. “Here was a relic of the prehistoric era, and today we are finding relics of the First World War.” Some believe that the iceman cleared the way for a new type of archaeology, studying the artifacts that are revealed as glaciers retreat due to climate change. 

Elsewhere in Stelvio National Park, a rock inscribed with ancient writing emerged as the glacier above it melted. But while these changes might be good for archaeologists, they do not bode quite so well for the fragile environment of the Alps. Because experts believe that these valuable mountain habitats are deteriorating fast.

Take the Forni glacier in the Italian Alps, for example. It has retreated by over a mile in the past 100 years, according to The Guardian. Plus the process seems to be speeding up. Because half of this mile figure has been achieved in just the past three decades. And as the ice melts, it can leave havoc in its wake.

In 1987 onlookers witnessed a melting glacier trigger the fatal Val Pola landslide which tore through the Italian Alps. And experts have noted the dramatic effect of climate change on the region’s flora and fauna, too. Speaking to The Guardian, Stelvio National Park’s Luca Pedrotti explained the situation.

“Some species really suffer as they are adapted to the cold Alpine environment,” Pedrotti said. “So they have to go higher and higher in search of cold temperatures and better-quality food.” At the same time, human activity, such as skiing, is causing further damage to Mount Scorluzzo and the surrounding regions.

So this Alpine world probably won’t remain pristine for long, in other words. But what other secrets might be hiding beneath the ice, waiting to be uncovered when the glaciers melt? Could there be more relics from the days of the White War, perhaps, or something that, like Özti the Iceman, harks back to far longer ago? 

If work in the Oppland region of Norway is anything to go by, Italy’s glacial archaeologists could be in for a treat. Since 2011 a team of researchers have been hard at work in the mountains, studying relics revealed by the retreating ice. And they have recovered around 2,000 artifacts, some as many as 6,000 years old. 

Despite their age, though, many of the objects are in excellent condition, thanks to the preserving effects of the cold mountain temperatures. Among the artifacts, reports claim, were relics such as clothing, skis and arrows, as well as hunting equipment spanning a period of several hundred years to the 10th Century. These show how mountain communities gradually moved away from their farming roots, reported National Geographic magazine. 

So it seems that glacial archeology is less challenging than its more traditional counterpart. Because there appears no need for exhaustive digging and excavation – experts simply observe what is left behind in the melting ice. But in other ways the work is challenging, requiring long hikes in difficult conditions – or helicopter rides which in turn contribute to climate change.

The work of these archaeologists, then, occupies a complex place in the chain of preservation and research. But with relics such as the Mount Scorluzzo barracks emerging from beneath the ice, it seems unlikely that expeditions to retrieve them will stop any time soon. Discoveries such as these, in fact, only serve to strengthen explorers’ enthusiasm for what else might be out there, hidden under mountains at the top of the world.