In the meantime, publications that typically transport thousands of tourists annually to Europe’s highest peaks have decided not to use certain routes to climb Mont Blanc.

Due to possible drought-related rockfalls, authorities in the French Alps have shut down two popular mountain shelters used by Mont Blanc climbers. Rockfalls and wide crevices have made climbing Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in western Europe, even more difficult and risky in a year marked by drought and heat waves.