The Little Ice Age: When Glaciers Advanced

From roughly 1300 to 1850, the Little Ice Age brought advancing glaciers and harsher conditions to the Alps. The Mer de Glace crept down valley, threatening villages. Summers grew shorter, winters more severe. Crop failures became common, forcing communities to adapt or perish.

Yet this period of climatic hardship also forged the particular character of Chamoniard society. Faced with expanding glaciers and diminishing resources, communities developed new forms of cooperation. The "corvées"—mandatory community work projects—built protective walls against avalanches, maintained irrigation channels, and cleared paths. Everyone contributed according to ability, creating bonds of mutual dependence that transcended individual family interests.

"The Little Ice Age taught Chamonix that survival meant solidarity," reflects Jean-Baptiste Ducroz, whose family archives date back to the 1600s. "My ancestors' account books show complex networks of debt and reciprocity—labor exchanged for food, shelter offered against future obligations. The mountains made merchants of everyone."