Melting Dolomites Reveal About 250 WWI Explosives, Spurring Army Clearance

Melting ice in the Italian Dolomites and nearby high-altitude Alpine areas exposed about 250 World War I-era explosive devices this year, setting off a weeks-long military clearance operation aimed at keeping hikers, mountain workers and rescue teams safe.

According to Italian Army statements cited by multiple news outlets, soldiers recovered and neutralized the munitions during a campaign that ran from early August until mid-October. CNN reported the operation ended Oct. 16. The finds included artillery shells and mortar bombs that had been buried for decades under snow and ice and then reappeared as glaciers and seasonal ice retreated.

That is why the discoveries matter now. These are not mainly historical artifacts surfacing for collectors or museums. They are unexploded battlefield relics turning up on mountain routes and work sites, sometimes in places popular with hikers during the summer season. Authorities treated them as an immediate public-safety problem, not a heritage exercise.

The operation was carried out by the Italian Army’s Julia Alpine Brigade and the 2nd Engineer Regiment, with helicopter support and help from local emergency services, including volunteer firefighters, the Red Cross and the Guardia di Finanza’s mountain rescue branch. The work stretched across parts of Trentino-Alto Adige and nearby mountain sectors, including areas around Carè Alto and the Livrio glacier.

Some of the devices were removed and destroyed after recovery. Others were too dangerous to transport and had to be neutralized on site in difficult high-altitude conditions. The Guardian, citing the Julia brigade, reported that the cache included 18 Italian 75 mm artillery shells and 37 Thevetot mortar shells, a French-made device also supplied to the Italian royal army during the war.

Many of the explosives were first spotted not by soldiers but by hikers, mountaineers and mountain workers after summer melt exposed them. In one case, authorities temporarily closed the Cima del Frate-Forcella Fierollo hiking route after a cluster of 75 mm shells was found. Officials told the public not to touch suspicious objects and to report them to police or emergency services by calling 112.

Reporting on the operation linked the surge in discoveries to low snowfall and exceptional summer heat, which accelerated glacier retreat and exposed material that had long been locked in ice. Stefano Morosini, a University of Bergamo professor and heritage project coordinator at Stelvio National Park, told The Guardian that the phenomenon is “very much a consequence of global heating.”

“Some had already exploded but many hadn’t, so now when they re-emerge, they are very, very dangerous,” Morosini said.

The munitions date to the “White War,” the World War I fighting between Italy and Austria-Hungary along the high Alpine front from 1915 to 1918. Large amounts of ammunition and military equipment were abandoned or buried during the conflict, then covered by snow and ice for generations.

Alpine melt has revealed wartime relics before. What made the 2026 season stand out was the scale of unexploded ordnance and the need for an extended, active disposal operation by the army, along with route closures and repeated public warnings. As more ice retreats from the mountains, authorities are signaling that anyone who spends time in these areas should treat newly exposed metal objects not as curiosities, but as potential explosives.