If you’ve been in Switzerland for a while, the Alps become part of your life in a way you might not have expected when you first arrived. You don’t need to be a mountaineer. It’s enough just to have seen the Matterhorn from Zermatt once, or to have looked out of the train window in winter and seen those white peaks. It’s something that stays with you.
But this summer, the Matterhorn has waterfalls cascading down its faces. Where there should be permanent ice and snow, there is running water. Glaciologists at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) confirmed that as early as 29 June, Swiss glaciers had reached their ‘retreat day’ – the point at which the snow accumulated over the winter can no longer compensate for the melting. In 2024, that point came in August. In 2025, in July. This year, in June – three days after the all-time record set in 2022, the worst year on record. And there are still three months of summer to go.
The snow deficit for the winter of 2025–2026 was 25 per cent below the average for the last ten years. In March, sand from the Sahara covered the Swiss snow for days, reducing its ability to reflect solar heat. As a result, the glaciers are entering the summer with no reserves and facing relentless temperatures. Experts have not ruled out the possibility that 2026 could be the most destructive year on record for Swiss ice.
What is disappearing is not just frozen water. It is the natural reservoirs that feed rivers, power stations, crops and the water supply for half the country. And it is also something more difficult to measure: the image of this land that many people have carried with them ever since the day they arrived and decided to stay.