Impact Experience "Glaciers & Water"
At Glacier 3000, Swiss glaciologist Dr Matthias Huss (GLAMOS / ETH Zurich) explained what the melting of the glaciers means for the water supply in Switzerland, and in the Saanenland in particular.
With Impact Gstaad on the glacier.
Last Friday, Impact Gstaad invited locals, Impact Circle members and guests to the ‘Glaciers & Water’ Impact Experience at Glacier 3000 on the Col du Pillon. The half-day excursion took place under the expert guidance of Dr Matthias Huss, head of the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (GLAMOS) and a glaciologist at ETH Zurich. The event began with a thematic introduction followed by a panel discussion featuring Huss, Arno Romang (local water supply) and Patrick Bauer (Gstaad Saanenland Tourism). Afterwards, the glaciologist led the group on a ‘Science Walk’ across the glacier, before a group lunch at the Botta mountain restaurant rounded off the outing.
Water: a more topical issue than ever
For Michel Hediger, Project Manager for Events & Projects at Impact Gstaad, it was obvious that this year’s Impact Experience should take place on the glacier. “The topic of water is more relevant than ever and affects practically every sector in the region, from agriculture and energy supply to tourism. That is why we wanted to address it where the changes are visible: directly on the glacier, together with people who have been collecting this data for years,” says Hediger. “A format like the Science Walk facilitates a direct exchange between experts and the public, which a lecture alone cannot achieve.”
A quarter of the volume lost in ten years
Around 1,300 glaciers still cover just under 750 square kilometres today and contain an estimated 45 cubic kilometres of ice. Since the peak of the so-called Little Ice Age around 1850, Switzerland has already lost more than half of its glacier area from that time. Huss finds the rate of loss in recent years particularly alarming: in the past ten years alone, Switzerland’s glaciers have lost around a quarter of their remaining volume. The extreme years of 2022 and 2023 combined accounted for around ten per cent of the volume — a loss that, just a few years ago, was not expected to occur for decades to come. Measurements taken by Huss on the Great Aletsch Glacier a few days before the event suggest that 2026 will rank alongside 2022 as one of the most extreme years on record.
Saanenland soon to be glacier-free
Huss also provided specific figures for the Saanenland region: the region’s remaining glaciers collectively cover barely one square kilometre, yet they make a significant contribution to the water supply, particularly during heatwaves. According to his calculations, during such periods up to a quarter of the region’s summer runoff comes from this small remnant of ice. The Tungel and Gälte glaciers — the region’s two remaining significant glaciers — are expected to have largely disappeared by around 2060 to 2070. The Scex Rouge glacier on the Vaud side of the pass could lose all its ice as early as between 2030 and 2040.
When storage is lacking
The key message of the day concerned not so much the total volume of water as its distribution over time. Switzerland is currently at, or close to, what is known as ‘Peak Water’ — the point at which glacial melt makes its greatest possible contribution to water runoff. According to Huss, annual precipitation in the Alps will not decrease fundamentally, but its distribution throughout the year will: less water in summer, when it is most urgently needed, and more in winter. As soon as the glaciers can no longer maintain this balance, competition for the remaining summer water between electricity generation, agriculture and drinking water supply will intensify. Huss also addressed the wider consequences of glacier retreat: changes to the landscape and for tourism, as well as increasing natural hazards. He cited the Blatten rockslide last spring as a wake-up call for the region. Possible solutions had already been discussed during the panel debate at the start of the day, ranging from additional storage capacity in reservoirs to artificial snowmaking and glacier covers. According to Huss, however, the latter primarily serve the interests of the skiing industry and, at best, merely treat the symptoms.
Act now
Glacier retreat itself is merely one visible consequence of climate change. Warming in Switzerland is already twice as severe as the global average — with tangible consequences: this year’s drought has had a concrete impact on the population, agriculture and the regional economy. For Michel Hediger, it is therefore clear where society as a whole must start: “We must tackle the problem at its root, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions immediately and thus try to mitigate this trend,” says Hediger.
