A symbol of melting glaciers, the last ski run of its kind has closed at the top of Germany

Proclaimed by the United Nations to raise global awareness of the urgency of their preservation, World Glacier Day on Saturday finds a sad coincidence with the dismantling of the Schneeferner ski lift in the Wetterstein massif, on the border between Germany and Austria.

At 2.874 m altitude, this summit is close to the Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany (2.962 m) and is known for its cable car which crosses the greatest vertical drop in the world.

The Zugspitze also gives its name to the ski area of ​​the massif where on Friday, the cables of the ski lift began to be cut with explosives.

The pylons, which "are placed in a mobile manner on the ice", will then "fall to the ground", Laura Schaper, spokesperson for the operator of the domain Bayerische Zugspitzbahn Bergbahn which is managing the work, explained to AFP.

But with the melting of the glacier, "it was becoming increasingly difficult to guarantee the stability of the pylons," emphasizes Christophe Mayer, glaciologist at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

The slope had already been closed for several seasons, as the retreat of the glacier had made the slope increasingly steep.

In 2022, the Academy announced it was removing this southern part of the Schneeferner from its list of glaciers, after a particularly hot summer.

"Only a tiny piece of ice remained. In the meantime, it has completely melted," explains Mr. Mayer.

So there are still four sites in Bavaria that meet the criteria for glaciers: the northern part of the Schneeferne and the Höllentalferner, on the same massif, and the Watzmann (2.713 m) and Blaueis (2.607 m) glaciers, on the Berchtesgarden massif.

But "they have lost a quarter of their surface area in the last two years", and the last two mentioned "will very soon disappear, probably this year or next year", says his colleague Wilfried Hagg.

As for the last two glaciers of the Zugspitze, the two glaciologists predict the disappearance of the northern Schneeferner "by the end of this decade" and that of the Höllentalferner "in the 2030s", the glaciologist assures.

These Bavarian glaciers "are no longer viable under current climatic conditions" because at their altitude, "summer melting is now much greater than the winter snowfall that could compensate for it," explains Mr. Mayer.

"100% condemned"

The EU's Copernicus climate observatory says the last three years have been the warmest ever recorded globally, due to increased greenhouse gas emissions that are causing the planet to warm up.

Regarding glaciers, approximately 41% of the total loss occurred during the decade between 2015 and 2024, according to Earth System Science Data, which notes the largest losses particularly in Alaska, western North America, and Central Europe.

"Even in the most optimistic climate scenarios" with a contained rise in temperatures, "or even if we could immediately stop warming", German glaciers "are doomed one hundred percent", asserts Wilfried Haag, for whom climate change is "absolutely" responsible for this situation.

While nature "adapts" to it, with only "microorganisms" being affected, he highlights another impact: the danger to mountain activities, with "more and more rockfalls," as the walls are no longer supported by ice.