A mountaineer has been filmed falling down a glacier, despite warnings of extremely hazardous conditions.
The man had been climbing the Upper Gate area of the Aneto Glacier, in the Pyrenees mountain range in Spain, when the potentially deadly accident occurred.
He fell for several feet before managing to stop himself.
Montaña Segura, a safety organization in the mountainous Aragon region of Spain, shared the footage, filmed on August 7, and warned climbers not to attempt that part of the glacier.
"Please: avoid going up the Upper Gate and the progression through that section of the glacier; and choose the route through the Ibón del Salterillo or the southern route through Coronas. High mountain the same but less exposed routes," the organization posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The Aneto is the tallest mountain in the Pyrenees at 11,168 feet. It is one of the most popular peaks in the range for climbers, especially in summer. There are several routes up the mountain, some more hazardous than others. The Upper Gate area is known to be particularly dangerous.
At the end of July, Montaña Segura issued a statement saying extremely high temperatures in the region this year had made the conditions even more hazardous. High temperatures can cause the ice on glaciers to melt, leading to floods and ice avalanches.
"The unusually high temperatures registered during the last months in the province of Huesca have caused the seasonal snow and the fossil ice of the glaciers of the Pyrenees to become especially dangerous," Montaña Segura said in the statement.
It added that the Aneto glacier was particularly hazardous "due to the large number of people" who visit.
Similar conditions were seen in 2022, the organization said.
Some mountaineers ignore these safety warnings, however, placing themselves and rescuers in danger.
In August 2020, a 43-year-old climber died in the Cresta de Llosas area of Aneto, reported news site Archyde. The woman had fallen from a height of 229 feet. The same weekend, another 12 mountain rescues were reportedly carried out in the region.
Climbing safety website Aneto Seguro said 60 percent of rescues from the mountain were because mountaineers had overestimated their physical capabilities.
Around 66 percent of Aneto rescues happen in the summer, when roughly 240 people attempt to scale the peak each day, it added.
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Robyn White is a Newsweek Nature Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on wildlife, science and the ... Read more
