The Lüsener Ferner is the second largest glacier in the Stubai Alps and currently (as of 08.2024) covers an area of around 2.6 square kilometres, with a downward trend. It is located in the Sellraintal valley and can only be reached via challenging alpine trails. It stretches from just under 2,750 metres to over 3,200 metres and is a good three kilometres long. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find information on the thickness of the ice. In a study from 2010 (https://doi.org/10.3189/2013AoG64A108), I was able to find an average value for the ice thickness of 58 metres, but take that one with caution.

Although the glacier faces north-east, the ice surface is exposed to the sun for a large part of the day in summer, as the surrounding mountains are only up to 300 to 400 metres higher. As a result, a lot of ice is melting on hot, sunny summer days.

View of the Lüsener Ferner, 20.08.2024. Almost no snow left on the ice.

Since 2016, a person I don't know has been screwing a metal plate with the year onto the edge of the ice every year at the beginning of September. This makes it easy to follow the retreat of the glacier without having to be there every year. Many thanks at this point to this person. If anyone knows the person, please let me know, I would like to take a photo of him/her putting up the sign.

I have a personal connection to the Lüsener Ferner myself, as it was the first really big ice giant that I marvelled at. In October 2018, I stood on the top of the Rinnenspitze and looked down onto the vast ice. Since that day, glaciers have held a special fascination for me. In 2022, I climbed up from the Sellraintal valley to the end of the glacier for the first time and have been there every year since. During the last years, I have witnessed the melting of the ice up close. In the following, I will show you the steady retreat of the glacier with photos from recent years.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find any official numbers on the decline, as the glacier is apparently not measured annually. As you can see in the following pictures, the Lüsener Ferner has lost both length and thickness in recent years. It is remarkable that it has lost a good one to two metres in ice thickness every summer since 2021. If you now consider that the average ice thickness at the beginning of the 2000s was around 58 metres, then it is easy to calculate how quickly large parts of the glacier will disappear if the melting continues at a rate like that. Another eyeopening observation is that in recent years the ice has been completely free of snow at the end of the summer, with very few small exceptions. No snow on the ice means that no new ice can form. The glacier is completely out of balance and is ‘dying’, so to speak.

The first two pairs of images show the change between 2018 and 2024. The left-hand images were taken on 17 October 2018 from the top of the Rinnenspitze, the right-hand images on 20 August 2024 from the same perspective.