2025, proclaimed the “international year of glaciers”, ends with a balance that no one would have wanted to read, especially in the Alps. According to the VI Glacier Caravan report by Legambiente, presented in Turin, the mountains have never been so fragile. At the basis of the analysis, shared with CIPRA Italia and the Italian Glaciological Foundation, there is an unequivocal message: high altitudes are today one of the first and clearest sentinels of the climate crisis. The glaciers are receding, the permafrost is degrading and extreme meteorological events are profoundly changing the balance of ecosystems and territories that for centuries had made stability a distinctive feature.
Instability: the crisis is already a reality
The instability of the Alps in 2025 is a fully ongoing phenomenon. During the year alone, 40 landslide events were recorded at high altitudes, with a crescendo during the summer months which saw August become the most critical month. What surprised the experts above all was the almost parity between rock collapses and debris flows, a new fact that signals how high temperatures and the degradation of the permafrost are modifying the very mechanisms by which the mountain disintegrates.
Veneto, with 17 episodes, and Valle d’Aosta, with 12, are the most affected regions. But the overall context is even more alarming: from 2018 to today, 671 major landslides have been recorded in the seven Alpine regions. This is an area where over 276 thousand people live, where there are 210 thousand buildings and almost 17,300 businesses potentially exposed to geomorphological risks.
If the geological dimension of the instability appears evident, the meteorological one is no less so. The City Climate Observatory recorded 154 extreme weather events in the Alpine regions between January and November 2025, more than the 146 documented the previous year. Flooding from intense rain represents the most frequent phenomenon, followed by damage from wind, river flooding and landslides caused by violent rainfall. Lombardy remains the most affected region, while the progressive increase in temperatures contributes, on the one hand, to the accelerated melting of glaciers and, on the other, to a drastic drop in snowfall, elements which in turn amplify the frequency and intensity of summer showers. It is no coincidence that over the last sixty years the Italian Alps have lost over 170 square kilometers of glacial surface, a retreat that scientific projections directly link to regional temperature increase.
Glaciers: symbol down
2025 was also the year in which some glacial collapses forcefully demonstrated how the climate crisis is now profoundly modifying the balance of the Alps. The episode that more than any other marked the season occurred in Switzerland: the collapse of the Birch glacier released an immense mass of rock and ice that overwhelmed the village of Blatten, leaving an enormous scar on the territory that is still clearly visible. It is an event that cannot be interpreted as an exception, because it is directly linked to the rapid degradation of the permafrost, the “glue” that holds the high altitude walls together, and which global warming is melting ever faster.
An equally eloquent picture emerges by observing the main glaciers of the Alpine arc. The Aletsch, the largest in the Alps, continues to retreat at a constant rate, losing tens of meters every year and thinning especially in its terminal part. The Adamello-Mandrone, the largest Italian glacier, shows a significant lowering of the surface already at an altitude of 2,600 metres, a sign that even in the areas once considered more stable, melting is accelerating. In Germany, on the Zugspitze massif, the fate of the northern Schneeferner is now sealed and, according to glaciologists, only a few remnants will remain by 2030; on the same massif, the permafrost is destined to disappear within a quarter of a century.
To make the vulnerability of the high altitude even more evident are the episodes that have affected the Alpine road system: the repeated debris flows that during the summer repeatedly interrupted the SS 51 of Alemagna show how the infrastructures have also become extremely exposed to the changes underway.
A governance that can no longer wait
Faced with such a critical situation, the requests made by Legambiente, CIPRA Italia and the Italian Glaciological Foundation concern, first of all, the need for continuous and structured monitoring of high altitudes, because knowledge of the phenomena is the indispensable premise for protecting the communities that live and work in mountain areas. Alongside monitoring, it becomes essential to update geomorphological hazard maps, tools on which territorial planning is based and which today, in many areas, no longer reflect the rapidity of the changes underway.
Another gap concerns the absence of a glacier register and an updated permafrost map for the entire national territory, fundamental elements for understanding the evolution of hydrogeological and climatic phenomena. Added to this is the need to develop robust mitigation and adaptation policies, supported by adequate resources and a time horizon that goes beyond emergencies.
Communication also plays a central role: a public commitment is needed to inform citizens about risk reduction measures, promote a more conscious use of the mountains and encourage truly sustainable tourism. The words of Giorgio Zampetti, general director of Legambiente, summarize this vision well: “courageous policies and constant monitoring are needed”. Valter Maggi, president of the Italian Glaciological Foundation, also recalls that the warming observed in the Alps proceeds at double the global average and that, without continuous support for research, the ability to prevent and manage risks will inevitably be compromised.
