Matthias Huss

Like pulling the plug of a bathtub: an incredible mass of #glacier ice disappearing at Griesgletscher (🇨🇭/🇮🇹) in one century.
It felt emotional to visit the exact same spot @swisstopo cartographers chose in 1919. The view was so different.
Simply unbelievable!!
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

Remember the catastrophic rock-ice avalanche of Blatten 🇨🇭 this May?
This incredible image comparison shows like nothing else the darkening of mountain peaks.
And along with the disappearance of snow, ice and permafrost, new hazards come along
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

110 years ago, glaciologists climbed up to Claridenfirn 🇨🇭 to start the longest measurements of #glacier mass balance worldwide.
Yesterday morning, the scene looked so different! Still beautiful, but the ice got slim... Almost sentimental to see another crazy year up there

Some more impressions from our GLAMOS @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social measurement campaign today. The landscape is simply awesome but the change from year to year is hard to take.

One more year: Ice loss at Konkordiaplatz on Aletsch #Glacier is just... wow 😲 Minus 4.6 metres of ice.
Will there ever be a call:
"Make Aletsch Great Again"?
It would be about time

We discontinued mass balance measurements on the small St. Annafirn in 2023 as the #glacier was on the verge of disappearing and rockfall hazard became too high.
A good decision: a massive landslide occurred this Sunday covering the entire glacier 👇
www.ur.ch/mmdirektione....

This #glacier encountered during our late-summer fieldwork looks like a wounded animal.
Deep scars in its surface are indicative of the processes of internal decay. This is widespread now in the Alps.
A sad sight for a glaciologist...

It's the time of the year GLAMOS measurements on around 20 Swiss #glaciers start. We've been on Rhone, Allalin, Corvatsch, ... these days.
Not all as shiny white as here! Major losses also in 2025. Stay posted for the press release via @scnat.ch on 1 Oct
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

Interestingly, a tiny piece of dead ice of the former Pizolgletscher still withstands the warming, covered by rock debris and not recognisable as ice anymore.
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

These small vanishing glaciers may not appear to be relevant (water, sea level rise) but they represent, or represented, an essential element of the alpine landscape with important links to local tourism and slope instabilities.

Did you know that already more than 1000 glaciers have disappeared in Switzerland over the last 50 years as a consequence of human-caused climate change?

One of those is Pizolgletscher which I visited today. Always a saddening yet impressive sight...

Some impressions from the bottom of the now-empty Lac de Faverges

A hole in the #glacier ice... Nature is just incredible.
We were at Glacier de la Plaine Morte today for GLAMOS measurements. Bad situation, as expected. Major mass loss has already occurred and melting continues at crazy rates. Wow, let's see where this is ending...

Getting used to this image: #glaciers almost completely naked - unprotected by the white snow - in August...
While July was good for glaciers after record-melt in June, the new heat wave again results in major ice loss
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

Great Aletsch #Glacier - what a beauty 😍
Melting at the glacier terminus is incredible though this year as reported by measurements by @pronaturabl.bsky.social
Already over 7️⃣ meters of ice loss since Oct 2024, with considerable melt also in winter.

The cooling of the last two days and some fresh snow above 2500 masl only is a short and intermittent relief.

This is the collapsing terminus of Rhone #glacier yesterday - retreating out of its proglacial lake. Impressive changes going on during the heat wave!
We measured almost 3 meters of ice melting over the last 4 weeks... This is 10 cm of ice layer removed every single day!!

A 26-day period of exceptionally high temperatures will end tomorrow, 4 degrees above normal.
Swiss #glaciers have lost an enormous amount of water during this time: it is equivalent to 🇨🇭's total annual drinking water use, and more than twice the average of the last years...

Results are based on intermediate observations on 12 Swiss glaciers acquired in the frame of GLAMOS combined with modelling.
Little winter snow and the 2nd warmest June have led to this situation.
Final results on glacier loss 2025 to be published on 1 Oct
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

The #Glacier Loss Day is reached in Switzerland!
From now on all melt that occurs on glaciers until October is unsustainable. This tipping point has only been reached so early in the record-shattering year 2022.
Expect big ice loss due to the prolonged melt season and feedback effects

Some cooling within the #glacier ice - this is what is urgently needed these days...
On Jungfraujoch, there has been no warmer June since at least 90 years than in 2025! @meteoschweiz.ch
Glaciers are in a deplorable state - as if they even need more attention in their UN International Year...

🚨 New paper alert! Glaciers in Western Canada, Switzerland & the conterminous US lost twice as much ice from 2021–2024 compared to the previous decade. Heatwaves + dust & wildfire impurities drove extreme melt.
Co-authored by #VAW member @matthias-huss.bsky.social ❄️🌍

The Glacier Loss Day occurred by mid-August in 2010-2020, and should be in October to permit a balance with climate. Heavy times!
Glaciers throughout Switzerland are equally affected. Little winter snow, early heat.
Based on #GLAMOS @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social measurements combined with modelling

In about 4 days from now, we are going to hit the #Glacier Loss Day in Switzerland! All melting from this point onwards till next winter is unsustainable, i.e. is long-term mass loss.
This is extremely early in the season! And just a bit behind the record-shattering year 2022...

Snow situation on Konkordiaplatz, Great Aletsch #Glacier, by 29 June 2019-2025.
Exchanging white snow with dark bare ice. This is really bad! And there's still up to 100 days to go in the melt season. Will we reach the all-time record of 2022?
I hope not...!
@jungfraualetsch.bsky.social

One month ago, Birchgletscher collapsed and erased the village of Blatten. A disastrous event that will keep Switzerland busy for a long while...
swisstopo images 👇 show the #glacier front began to advance in 2020, indicating a growing instability - a precursor of the event

More than 300m. But this is higher up where melt rates are yet less extreme

Hunting the extreme year 2022...
Yes, I'm really worried about the current state of Swiss #glaciers! After a dry winter, the scorching heat of the last weeks pushes glaciers towards another black year.
Hoping for some cooling but the summer has only just started
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

The tongue of Rhone #Glacier ten days after my last visit. Can you guess how much ice melted away? 1️⃣ meter in terms of thickness! 1️⃣0️⃣ days... And that's just the beginning of the summer season.
We know the times are bad for the ice, but still it is hard to accept these numbers!

The beauty of a #glacier at sunrise descending down into the valley.

You may not realise that this view is dramatic, and not just gorgeous: Glacier retreat is immense, and there's very little snow this June...

Pic taken from Piz Languard on 22 June 2025