Glaciers in Austria continue to lose significant length, area and volume. According to the Alpine Club's new glacier report, the process has shifted "from retreat to collapse". The Alps without glaciers may soon become a reality.

94 out of 96 monitored glaciers retreated during the 2024/2025 measurement period, by an average of 20.3 metres, experts from the Alpine Club explained at a press conference in Vienna on Friday. The Alpeiner Ferner in the Stubai Alps in Tyrol lost as much as 114.3 metres, according to the new glacier report. The Pasterze on the Grossglockner in Carinthia is set to split in two before long.

"We need to prepare ourselves for the prospect of Alps without glaciers", said Nicole Slupetzky, Vice President of the Austrian Alpine Club. In total, the roughly 900 glaciers cover an area of 286 square kilometres — ten years ago, for instance, that figure was still 328 square kilometres. For comparison: Vienna covers an area of around 415 square kilometres.

Consequences of global warming… Read everything about the decline of the glaciers at science.orf.at

Andreas Kellerer-Pirklbauer, geographer at the University of Graz, talks about the current glacier report — including whether Austria's glaciers can still be saved. Watch it at: on.orf.at