When the Ice Disappears

For generations, glaciers have been among the defining symbols of the Alps: immense rivers of ice flowing between the peaks, feeding valleys below and shaping the landscape we know today. In the near past, they were simply part of the mountain scenery. Today, they are becoming a memory in real time. The numbers are difficult to ignore. In Switzerland, glaciers lost around 3% of their remaining volume in 2025 alone, following several years of exceptional losses. The decade leading up to 2025 was the fastest period of glacier loss in Switzerland since systematic measurements began, with roughly one quarter of the country's glacier ice disappearing in just ten years. France is experiencing the same transformation. Météo-France estimates that Alpine glaciers have already lost about half of their volume since 1900. In the Mont Blanc massif, simulations indicate that the Argentière Glacier could disappear toward the end of this century under a moderate emissions pathway, and potentially decades earlier under stronger warming. What happens next is not simply a question of losing beautiful scenery. Glaciers act as natural water reservoirs, ecosystems depend on them, and their retreat can destabilize mountain terrain and alter the routes we use to explore the Alps. Furthermore, we all know in Europe for instance with the Danube river what happened in 2026, not naming the other big rivers in the area. Climate models have already warned us where this trajectory can lead. Under strong warming, European Alpine glaciers could lose more than 90% of their 2017 ice volume by 2100. Imagine an Alps where the great white tongues between the peaks have largely disappeared. Not quite the Atlas Mountains but a fundamentally different Alps, warmer, drier and without much of the permanent ice that has defined it for centuries. The question is no longer whether change is happening. It is what we choose to do about it. How can we reduce emissions, protect water resources, travel more responsibly and help mountain communities adapt? And perhaps most importantly: what kind of Alps do we want future generations to inherit? The mountains are still here. But they are changing and we are witnessing it.