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Researchers monitoring a melting glacier on the Marmolada, the largest peak in the Italian Dolomites, said they were astonished to witness a tourist navigating one of its trails on a self-balancing scooter.
The group, from the University of Padua’s Museum of Geography, had been making their way down the mountain’s glacier of the same name after carrying out measurements on its retreat when they encountered the man on a path at an altitude of about 2,600 metres.
Giovanni Donadelli, one of the researchers, said the tourist had been trying to reach the front of the glacier, perhaps to “touch the ice and take a photo”. A video of the incident was shared on the museum’s Instagram account, attracting more than 600,000 views.
“I told him he wouldn’t be able to get up to the front on the unicycle,” said Donadelli. “But people take risks and this has been a problem throughout the Dolomites all summer.”
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The man is believed to have gone up the mountain in a cable car, which reaches 3,000 metres, before descending along a rocky path.
“There’s a huge terrace up there,” Donadelli said. “People go up in high heels and with their small dogs. It was very unusual to see someone on such a vehicle. We were astonished. We don’t want to demonise him, but why take risk when you don’t need to?”
On sharing the video, the museum referred to its manifesto for another Marmolada, which it published last year and in which it proposed “transforming the Marmolada into a model for sustainable development” and “certainly not a stage performance like this one”.
The Marmolada glacier has been measured every year since 1902 and is considered “a natural thermometer” of climate change. Scientists said last year that it could melt completely by 2040 as a result of rising average temperatures. The collapse of part of the Marmolada killed 11 people in 2022.
Tourists seeking perfect photos of the peaks and inexperienced hikers have overwhelmed emergency rescue services in the Dolomites this summer. In one incident, a British hiker was billed more than €14,000 after having to be rescued by helicopter when he ventured along a path that had been closed due to rockslide risk.
