Western Europe's highest summit gets taller

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

CHARMONIX, France (AFP) — Western Europe's highest mountain Mont Blanc is taller than ever due to snow piled atop its summit, in what experts meeting in France Saturday described as a climate-change related phenomenon.

The Alps' tallest peak was measured at 4,810.90 metres (15,784 feet) on September 15 and 16 -- a 2.15 metre increase in two years, surveyors from France's Haute-Savoie region announced.

"The height as well as the volume of Mont Blanc has increased considerably, because the snow has massed on the summit over the last two years," expert Philippe Borel told AFP at a meeting in the Alpine town Charmonix.

The volume of ice on Mont Blanc's slopes over 4,800 meters high was first calculated at 14,600 cubic metres in 2003. It dropped to 14,300 cubic...