An Alpine Nation Clings to Its Lone Remaining Glacier

Drop by drop, Slovenia is losing its ice. Faced with rising temperatures and declining winter snow, the Alpine nation has seen one of its two glaciers melt away, and the remaining one shrink irreversibly. Slovenians know that they are no exception to global warming, reports the AP. A record hot and dry summer in Europe this year further aggravated the situation—the glacier on Mount Triglav, Slovenia's highest peak, completely melted away by the end of the summer, while the remaining one is still holding on. It is called Skuta and is located in the Kamnik-Savinje Alps to the north.

Mountain guide Andrej Slak says the change has been especially noticeable over the past decade. "Just look at what is left of (the remains of Skuta)—barely anything more than a small patch covered in grit and debris," he says. What remains is a patch of ice on the surface of the mountainside, and the rest buried under stones, with a narrow opening leading into a crevasse. Slak said the glaciers have served as vital water reservoirs for the surrounding valleys over centuries. Shepherds once used icy hollows like this to store and preserve meat, but such ice pockets can no longer be found, he explained.

In the capital Ljubljana, Anton Melik Geographical Institute at the Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts has kept monitoring records for both glaciers for the past 80 years. Geographer Miha Pavsek said Skuta initially had about 6.1 to 7.4 acres of ice underneath. Now there are 3.7 acres, and the ice has thinned from dozens to just a few meters thick. The vanished Triglav Glacier covered a little more than 34.5 acres some 80 years ago. Five or 10 years ago, it was down to below 2.4 acres. It then disappeared. The tipping point, Pavsek said, came from a combination of two factors: very little snow, meaning a very low maximum seasonal snow depth, followed by a very warm summer. These two factors, he said, "coincided very well this year."

On Skuta, a marker painted on a rock shows the glacier's reach in 1994. The ice has pulled back since, and Pavsek predicts Skuta is on the same trajectory as the lost Triglav Glacier. Most of the remaining ice surface on Skuta is covered in gravel, which gives it some protection from the sun, Pavsek said. Still, though 80% to 90% of the ice was covered in gravel a week ago, the glacier was still melting—water could be seen dripping in a cave below. The effects are felt far beyond the mountains. In Slovenia, meltwater from glaciers feeds major rivers, including the Drava in Croatia and the Mura, which originates in Austria. Experts predict that all glaciers under 3,500 meters altitude in Austria are expected to disappear by 2050, which would further affect the two rivers.