The remains of a fallen Austro-Hungarian soldier in the Alps, discovered from a melting glacier in 2012

The remains of a fallen Austro-Hungarian soldier in the Alps, discovered from a melting glacier in 2012.

 Today 107 years ago, on December 13, 1916, the "White Friday" avalanche took place near the Mount Marmolada in the Dolomite mountains, killing some 10,000 Austro-Hungarian and Italian soldiers in the second worst avalanche-related disaster in history. During the First World War, a front opened up in the.Dolomite mountains between Italy and Austria-Hungary, fighting for control over each mountain peak.

The cold, rocky and vertical terrain exposed the Italian and Austrian soldiers to difficult living conditions and severe dangers, such as high altitudes, snowstorms, strong winds, freezing temperatures, rock- and snow avalanches.

Mount Marmolada was the highest mountain of the Dolomites, which the Austrians held the control of by late

1916. The Austrians had built wooden barracks on the Gran Poz Summit of Mount Marmolada, in which Austrians

Mountain Troops werehoused. The barracks were well-placed to protect the Austrians from an ltalian attack, as it was located right under a mountain of unstable snow, which would prove to be just as dangerous as the ltalians themselves. During December 1916, heavy snow began falling almost ceaselessly above the Alps, some 9 days without a break.

This formed a heavy pack of snow on the summit of the Mount Marmolada, recorded at 8-12 m tall. The Austrians

inside the barracks realized the danger and sent a request to their superiors to relocate, which was denied due to the strategic importance of their positions.

A sudden change in weather led warm and humid masses of air from the Mediterranean to the Alps, causing the snow packs on top of Mount Marmolada to loosen.

Then at 5:30 AM on December 13, 1916, over 1 million m.of snow, ice and rocks weighing ~200,000 tons plunged.down the Mount Marmolada on top of the Austrians.soldiers in the barracks.

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