Researchers bid goodbye to last glacier in Europe's Allgäu Alps

Scientists have confirmed the loss of the last glacier in the Allgäu Alps, a mountain range on the German-Austrian border, as climate change continues to take its toll on Europe's peaks.

Researchers who have observed the Schwarzmilzferner glacier for years said they expect the eastern Alps to be completely ice-free by 2070, amid rising average temperatures and increasingly severe summer heatwaves.

The Schwarzmilzferner, located on the Austrian side of the Allgäu Alps, can no longer be considered a glacier after it lost over 4 metres in thickness and around half its volume earlier this year when much of Europe was hit by extreme heat, according to a glaciologist at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

The glacier "is highly likely to have disappeared completely by the end of next summer," Christoph Mayer predicted.

Mayer and his colleagues have been monitoring the Schwarzmilzferner, which is located at an altitude of about 2,450 metres, for 26 years.

They have recorded a significant loss of ice mass since 2016, a development that has "intensified further since 2022," the researcher said. "Since then, it has been clear that the glacier is nearing its end."

In addition to thickness and volume, a key factor in defining a glacier is whether it is flowing - which is no longer the case with the Schwarzmilzferner, according to Mayer.

The researcher stressed that the disappearance of the glacier was not an isolated case.

"Several smaller glaciers in the Alps disappear every year," said Mayer, adding he believes this trend is virtually unstoppable. 

"Even if there is heavy snowfall in winter, the ice masses are shrinking rapidly. Summers have now become too hot for them. 

"As things stand, I expect the entire Eastern Alps to be ice-free between 2060 and 2070."

The remaining glaciers in the German Alps are expected to disappear even sooner, having lost more than a quarter of their area by 2025 over a period of just two years.