some notes

The peak that I am mentioning in the acknowledgments that Hylke and I climbed in June 2007 is the Mittlere Guslarspitze at a height of 3126 m. This peak is pictured above looking eastward on Sunday 21 August 2011. With blazing blue skies and temperatures around 15°C at 3000 m it is also vividly seen that the glacier once prominently present on the northern flanks of that peak has nearly disappeared. Some four years ago most of the area visible on the above photograph that is now covered by rocks was still occupied by the glacier and covered with fresh snow. As such, this glacier represents the rapid melting of glaciers presently observed at many Alpine glaciers. 

One of the higher peaks in the Ötztaler Alpen is the Similaun (3599 m) pictured above in a view from the northwest (from the Marzellkamm) on Tuesday 6 September 2011 just around noon. Located south of the Mittlere Guslarspitze (see the previous picture), right on Austria's border to Southern Tyrol/Italy its northern flank, seen on this photograph, presents another striking example that illustrates the loss of glacier mass over the past decades even at regions around and above 3000 m. While 30 years ago this flank had been covered by ice almost completely (see photograph from wikipedia taken in 1981), presently large portions of it appear devoid of ice. The marked crevasse ("Bergschrund") that separates the flank from the underlying glacier bed is clearly visible. Meteorologically, the clear skies on the day this picture was taken were related to a short-lived high-pressure ridge that was situated over Tyrol on that day to be followed by changeable conditions the next day that were associated with an approaching depression.  

Sunday, 03 March 2024