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When a Swiss glaciologist originally saw the Rhône ice field 35 years ago, the ice was just a brief stroll from the spot where his mom and dad typically parked the car.

"My initial encounter with the glacier... I experienced a special feeling of timelessness," says Dr. Huss.

Nowadays, it takes thirty minutes starting from that very location and the view looks completely altered.

"Every time I go back, I recall its former appearance," notes Dr. Huss, presently the head of the Swiss glacier monitoring network, "the glacier's appearance in my younger years."

International Ice Loss

There are similar stories regarding numerous ice masses around the world, as these glacial structures are retreating - quickly.

Last year, glaciers outside the giant ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica lost 450 billion tonnes of glacial mass, according to a new WMO study.

This corresponds to a block of ice 7 kilometers high, 7 kilometers across and 4.3 miles thick - sufficient water to completely fill 180 million Olympic swimming pools.

"Ice masses are disappearing across the planet," says Professor Ben Marzeion from the Geography Department at the University of Bremen. "They are sitting in a climate that is very hostile to them now because of global warming."

Swiss Ice Masses Dramatically Impacted

Alpine ice masses have suffered especially severe impacts, shedding one-fourth of their glacial volume during the previous ten years, data from the monitoring network showed recently.

"It's really difficult to comprehend the extent of this melt," explains Dr Huss.

Yet images - taken from satellites and terrestrial locations - tell their own story.

Orbital photographs demonstrate the way Rhône Glacier has changed since 1990, when the scientist initially saw it. Near the glacier's terminus is a lake where there used to be ice.

Rapid Glacial Decline

Until recently, glaciologists in the Alps typically regarded two percent glacial loss in a single year to be "extreme".

Subsequently, during 2022 completely shattered that notion, with nearly 6% of Switzerland's remaining ice lost in a single year.

That has been followed by substantial reductions over 2023, 2024 and presently in 2025.

Dr. Regine Hock, glaciology professor at the University of Oslo, has regularly visited the mountain range for over five decades.

The transformations during her career are "truly astonishing", she explains, however "current observations show dramatic alterations within a few years."

Individual Glacier Instances

This particular glacier, in north-eastern Switzerland, maintained relative equilibrium up until the late 1900s - accumulating nearly equivalent ice from winter precipitation as it dissipated through melting.

However, in the current century, its decline has accelerated.

For many smaller glaciers, such as Pizol's ice field in the north-east Swiss Alps, the impact has been overwhelming.

"This particular ice mass that I studied, and presently it has entirely disappeared," states Matthias Huss. "This certainly causes sadness."

Historical View

Images enable us to look even further back in time.

Gries' ice mass, within southern Swiss territory adjacent to Italy, has retreated by around 2.2 kilometers in the past century. The area previously occupied by glacial ice currently contains a major water body.

In south-east Switzerland, the Pers Glacier previously supplied the bigger Morteratsch ice mass, that descends into the valley. Presently, these ice masses are separated.

And the largest glacier within the Alpine range, Aletsch Glacier, has receded by around 2.3 kilometers through the last three-quarters of a century. Where there was ice, there are now trees.

Natural Compared to Anthropogenic Factors

Ice masses have expanded and contracted through natural processes over millennia, of course.

In the cold snaps during the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s - related to this cooler climatic period - glaciers commonly grew.

During this time, many were considered cursed according to Alpine mythological traditions, their growth associated with supernatural influences as they posed risks to communities and crops.

Accounts are recorded of residents summoning clergy to interact with ice mass entities and get them to move up the mountain.

Recent Environmental Shifts

Glacial withdrawal became extensive across the Alps in about 1850, although specific dates differed from place to place.

This aligned with growing industrial activity, during hydrocarbon consumption, primarily coal, began to heat up our atmosphere, but it's hard to disentangle environmental and human influences from that historical period.

Where there is no real doubt is that the particularly rapid losses since approximately the 1980s are not natural.

Absent anthropogenic climate change - by burning fossil fuels and emitting substantial quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) – glaciers would be expected to maintain approximate equilibrium.

"Explanation is only possible when we consider CO2 emissions," states Ben Marzeion.

Upcoming Forecasts

Particularly alarming is that these large, flowing bodies of ice can take decades to entirely respond to quickly changing climate conditions.

Consequently, if planetary heating stopped immediately, ice masses would keep diminishing.

"A significant portion {of the future melt|of coming glacial loss|of anticipated ice disappearance