'One of them still had a spoon, though, wrapped in the puttee around his leg. But not before their boots and every other useful object were taken. Nicolis, who participated in the recovery of those remains, says the soldiers 'were at the bottom of a crevasse, thrown there by Italian soldiers, or by their own fellow soldiers, or perhaps by some salvager. That includes two Austro-Hungarian soldiers, probably killed by a grenade, whose bodies were discovered in 2012 on the Presena Glacier. Corpses-unknown soldiers, victims of battles or a random bullet, an avalanche, a careless step-are melting free of their icy tombs. The thawing is revealing more than artifacts. Photographs by Stefano Torrione, National Geographic-Italia Working in brutal conditions, Italians and Austro-Hungarians alike leveled peaks, opened roads, dug tunnels, built cableways, laid telephone lines, and transported tons of material to lofty heights-for combat, but also for the everyday needs of the thousands of soldiers who were living year-round at altitudes where only shepherds, wild herb hunters, and mountain climbers had ever ventured. Perhaps most remarkable, though, was the White War, a series of impossible-and ultimately futile-blitzes, incursions, athletic feats, and engineering coups. Troops fought and died all along the frontier, from Trentino to the Adriatic, for the next three years.

Its aim, stoked by a rising nationalist fervor, was to annex several regions-particularly those inhabited by Italians-held by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Now, a century later, the warming world is revealing the buried past, as relics and corpses are melting free of their icy tombs. Never before had battles been waged on such towering peaks or in such frigid conditions. Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops clashed at altitudes up to 12,000 feet (3,600 meters) with temperatures as low as -22☏ (-30☌) in the Guerra Bianca, or White War, named for its wintry theater.

Cat stands frozen