Frankly, most of the glaciers in the Alps are in trouble. In 10 years there may not be any glaciers to see. This makes our hiking trips all that much more valuable for our hikers at Russell Tours.
Regarding the news about the Planpincieux glacier:
See this video – specifically that last few seconds where they show the water coming down the left side of the glacier into the valley.
You can look at the map we created to understand where the issue with the Planpincieux glacier is.
Look up from the marker on the Planpincieux on the map you will see the glacier that shows in the video link above.
The line (river) that going down from the left side of the glacier on the map into the valley is the river in the video.
As shown on the map the trail that our groups hike from Courmayeur to Rifugio Bonatti (to the right of Courmayeur) is on a ridge across from the Mount Blanc Massif.
Our TMB hike is high above that valley road on a ridge that runs parallel to the mountain and glacier that may be in trouble. Way above. Rifugio Bonatti is 2,500 of feet above the road at Lavachey.
Courmayeur is over 5 miles away from this area and the Rifugio is an additional 3+ miles up the ridge. Our hiking trails walks beyond any issue that may occur.
Click this link below to see a Google Map of the trails our hiking tours take and the area of the glacier (Planpincieux marker is at the street level – the glacier is up the mountain from there.)
We hope that this helps to explain the situation.
We will be watching this situation as the 2020 season comes into focus.