By Cecile Mantovani and Denis Balibouse

OBERGOMS, Switzerland (Reuters) -Switzerland’s 5.4 km-long Gries Glacier, a focal point for research, is retreating at an alarming pace as climate change accelerates an unprecedented ice melt across the country, the Swiss glacier monitoring service said.

“This is a dying glacier,” said Matthias Huss, Director of Glacier Monitoring Switzerland (GLAMOS), noting the depth of the ice reduced by six metres in the 12 months to September 2025 alone.

Between 2000 and 2023, the glacier, in the southern canton of Valais, reduced by 800 metres in length. Today it is 3.2 km shorter than in 1880, with an average ice thickness of 57 metres.

The grim reality of rapid glacier melt was seen in May 2025, when a catastrophic glacier collapse destroyed the village o

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