The Presena Glacier above Passo Tonale is the latest Alpine glacier to attempt to cover its surface with an insulating and reflective ‘blanket’ this summer in a bid to slow its rate of melting.

More than 90,000 square metres of the glacier, has been covered with a thin reflective material, a process already being used my glaciers in Austria such as Pitztal and Stubai, and in Switzerland and on Germany’s Zugspitze which ended summer snow sports a few years ago. In France snowmaking has been tried on the glacier at Val d’Isere, which is one of three glaciers in the country still open for summer snow sports.

Small scale tests of the material used on the Presena glacier have shown that it reduces melt rates by up to 60%, potentially good news for the glacier which a study found lost nearly two-fifths of its mass in one decade alone up to 2003 due to global warming.

Veronica Tonge comments “It’s an interesting idea to cover a part of a glacier to protect it during the summer and previous studies in Verbier have shown that covers can make an enormous difference.   It demonstrates that resorts are investigating a myriad of options to protect their winter ski industry due to its value to the local economy.  Covering glaciers is never ultimately going to be the answer and resorts need to look at diversification and offering a range of activities to reduce their overall reliance on downhill skiing - one strategy is to boost summer tourism (incidentally those resorts that open their lifts for summer tourism to view the glaciers need to consider - no-one wants to look at a large ‘tarpaulin’. "