The Italian Army recovered and defused around 250 explosive devices this summer after melting ice exposed them across the high-altitude slopes and glaciers of the Dolomites. The munitions, which date to World War I, were discovered in the Trentino-Alto Adige region and were often reported by hikers and mountaineers.
The recovery operation began in June, when firefighters found an unexploded 90-millimeter mortar shell while retrieving a car that had rolled into a ravine. The army’s Julia Alpine brigade continued its work until mid-October across areas including the Carè Alto and Lares glaciers, Cima Tre Cannoni and the Livrio glacier.
The recovered weapons included hand grenades, 75-millimeter artillery shells and French-made Thevetot mortar rounds. They are remnants of the “White War,” the fighting between Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces in the Alps from 1915 to 1918. Soldiers operated at elevations sometimes exceeding 10,000 feet, digging tunnels into the ice and transporting artillery across steep terrain.
An estimated 180,000 people died during the campaign, with hypothermia, falls and avalanches causing more deaths than enemy fire. When the war ended, large quantities of weapons and the remains of fallen soldiers were left beneath snow and glacial ice.
The pace of discoveries has increased as the region’s glaciers retreat. Low snowfall during the winter of 2025, followed by exceptionally hot temperatures in the summer of 2026, caused extensive ice loss in northern Italy. Stefano Morosini, a historian at the University of Bergamo and heritage project coordinator at Stelvio National Park, said that the ice had preserved some of the explosives for more than a century and warned that unexploded devices become highly dangerous when they re-emerge.
The army’s work required mountaineering expertise and support from helicopter crews, volunteer firefighters, the Red Cross and the mountain rescue branch of the Guardia di Finanza. Specialists used air-lift equipment and protective gear to move unstable shells to locations where they could be safely detonated.
In one case, a group of 75-millimeter shells led authorities to close a popular climbing route between Cima del Frate and the Forcella Fierollo pass. The retreating ice is also making alpine travel more hazardous, with Morosini citing the 2022 collapse of the Marmolada glacier, which killed 11 people.
Earlier melting has revealed other traces of the conflict. In 2015, thawing ice near Mount Scorluzzo uncovered a wooden barracks built inside a natural cavern at an elevation of 10,154 feet. The shelter, sealed since November 1918, still contained straw bedding, lanterns, uniforms, food tins, postcards and newspapers.
Sources: Smithsonian Magazine.