# Black Glacier in Allgäu Alps Loses Glacier Status After Significant Melting

- Published: 2026-11-08 16:10 UTC
- Section: Planet › Climate
- Tags: Black Glacier, Allgäu Alps, glacier status, melting, climate change
- URL: https://realtech.media/news/rt-610d0426465d69913cc5c112_black_glacier_in/

**The Black Glacier in the Allgäu Alps has lost its status as a glacier due to severe melting, with predictions of complete disappearance next summer.**

![Black Glacier in Allgäu Alps Loses Glacier Status After Significant Melting](https://realtech.media/media/2026/11/c08535d58f21f8db.jpg)
*lomazoma.com*

The Black Glacier on the Tyrolean side of the Allgäu Alps has lost its glacier status following a hot summer. This season has cost the glacier more than four meters in thickness and about half of its volume. Christoph Mayer, a glaciologist at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, stated that it is highly likely the glacier will be completely gone after next summer [1].

Mayer and his colleagues have been monitoring the last glacier of the Allgäu Alps on the Austrian side for 26 years, documenting significant ice mass losses since 2016. Since 2022, this trend has intensified, making it clear that the glacier is nearing its end. The definition of a glacier includes not only thickness and volume but also whether it is flowing, which is no longer the case for the Black Glacier [1].

The ice field on the southeast side of Mädelegabel and Hochfrottspitze, at an altitude of about 2,450 meters, is not an isolated case. Mayer explains that several smaller glaciers in the Alps disappear each year, and he believes this trend is unlikely to be reversed. Even with heavy snowfall in winter, ice masses are rapidly suffering due to increasingly hot summers. Mayer predicts that the entire Eastern Alps could be ice-free between 2060 and 2070 [1].

In Bavaria, the situation may deteriorate even faster. The heat has taken a toll on the last four glaciers in Germany, which are expected to lose more than a quarter of their area in just two years by 2025. A study by geographer Wilfried Hagg from the University of Munich and Mayer last year indicated that around one million cubic meters of ice have been lost. Significant losses are also anticipated this summer, according to the environmental research station Schneefernerhaus on the Zugspitze [1].

The Blaueis Glacier and Watzmann Glacier in the Berchtesgaden Alps may face a similar fate as the Black Glacier in the coming years, potentially losing their glacier status. The Northern Schneeferner on the Zugspitze could be affected by the end of the decade, while the Höllentalferner in the Zugspitz area is expected to last the longest, though scientists estimate it has a maximum of ten years left. The Southern Schneeferner lost its glacier status in 2022 [1].

## Sources

1. [lomazoma.com](https://lomazoma.com/forscher-erkennen-status-letzter-gletscher-in-den-allgaeuer-alpen-verschwindet)

---

Source: RealTech, realtech.media — https://realtech.media/news/rt-610d0426465d69913cc5c112_black_glacier_in/