Friday, 23 October 2026
International edition · English
Region
The Alps, Pyrenees, Iceland, Scandinavia and the mountains of Europe. News, routes, wildlife and guides from Europe.
16 articles
Curiosities Curiosity
When the cold arrives, the Alpine marmot shuts itself in a burrow with its family and spends almost half the year in deep torpor. Its heart almost stops and it lives off the fat it built up in summer.
News Feature
At 78° north, Svalbard's main town is living Arctic warming first-hand: tap water unfit to drink, homes made uninhabitable by thawing permafrost, avalanches and tour guides changing their routes.
Little winter snow, heatwaves from May to September and the 0 °C isotherm above 4,000 metres for 76 days: the result is the second-worst year for Swiss glaciers since measurements began.
Measurement campaigns by the Swiss glacier monitoring network document the biggest losses since records began. We explain what the numbers mean and why they matter beyond Switzerland.
In May 2025 a huge flow of ice, rock and mud almost completely destroyed the village of Blatten, in the Lötschental. A preventive evacuation avoided a far greater tragedy. We look at what happened and why it is a warning for the whole of the Alps.
After eight centuries of calm, the Reykjanes peninsula has been erupting since 2021 and, above all, since December 2023 near Grindavík. We explain the phenomenon and how to travel safely.
Europe has lowered the wolf's level of protection after years of debate between farmers and conservationists. Does that mean it can be hunted? What happens in Spain? The answers, without slogans.
At the start of the century fewer than a hundred were left. Today the Iberian lynx numbers more than 2,400 and is no longer listed as Endangered on the Red List. This is how it was achieved and what could still go wrong.
When a border follows the watershed across a glacier, melting can move it. That is what has happened around the Matterhorn, where Switzerland and Italy have had to adjust their shared boundary.
Adopted in 2024 after a fiercely contested process, the Nature Restoration Regulation requires EU countries to bring degraded ecosystems back. What it says, what it does not say and when its effects will be seen.
With a wingspan of almost three metres and a diet made up mostly of bones, the bearded vulture is one of the most astonishing birds on the planet. After disappearing from much of Europe, it is soaring over its mountains again.
Rhyolite mountains in every colour, obsidian fields, fumaroles and glacial rivers to ford. The Laugavegur is short in kilometres and huge in scenery, with a climate that does not forgive improvisation.
Three countries, a dozen passes and Mont Blanc always on the horizon. The TMB is probably Europe's most famous trek: demanding for its total ascent, but with no technical sections on its classic route.
It is one of Spain's most popular hikes and looks like a stroll, but the path runs beside unprotected drops, with rockfall and a return that doubles the distance. Here is how to do it right.
There are only a few dozen of them, they live between the Strait of Gibraltar and the Bay of Biscay and since 2020 they have been interacting with the rudders of sailing boats. We review what is known —and what is not— about this unique population.
Its velvety look is not decorative: it is armour against the radiation, cold and dryness of the high mountains. The natural and cultural history of the most famous flower in the Alps.
Our store · NMshop
Hiking footwear, jackets, backpacks, camping and climbing gear chosen for the mountains. Shipping worldwide.
NMshop is the outdoor gear store run by the publisher of Altavia.
