Glaciers retreating, mountains in peril: this is the stark warning coming from the Alps, where climate change is advancing at an alarming pace. Alpine glaciers are melting at worrying rates, making the mountains increasingly fragile. In the last 60 years, more than 170 km² of glacier area has been lost in the Italian Alps—equivalent to the surface of Lake Como.

Equally concerning is the degradation of permafrost—the layer of soil or rock that remains frozen for at least two consecutive seasonal cycles—and the rise in its temperature. The state of permafrost is a critical warning signal of the impact of global warming on this often “invisible” part of glaciers.

This double picture emerges from the final report of the 2025 “Carovana dei Ghiacciai” campaign by Legambiente and from data by the Italian Glaciological Foundation, which together with environmental group Cipra Italia monitored the health of several Alpine glaciers this summer. The study reveals the toll of rising temperatures, more frequent high-altitude zero-degree thresholds, and extreme weather events that not only accelerate glacier melt but also destabilize mountain terrain, with downstream consequences.

Eight glaciers were closely observed in this sixth edition of the study: five in Italy—the Adamello in Lombardy; the Ventina, also in Lombardy; the Solda in South Tyrol; and the Bessanese and Ciamarella in Piedmont’s Graian Alps—and three abroad: the Aletsch in Switzerland, the “King of the Alps,” and Germany’s Zugspitze glaciers, Schneeferner and Höllentalferner.

All face the same fate: frontal retreat, shrinking area and thickness. Around them, the mountain landscape is changing shape and color, with ecosystems creeping in to fill the voids left by melting ice.