Marmolada glacier in retreat, permafrost deteriorating and high-altitude water dwindling: Legambiente warns of a crisis in the Venetian Dolomites
Marmolada is losing ice, the mountains are becoming more unstable and water at high altitude is no longer a given. That is the picture painted by Legambiente Veneto for the seventh edition of the Glacier Caravan, the international campaign that sets off from France and once again shines a spotlight on the ever faster transformation of the Alps.
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Climate change in the Dolomites is no longer just a matter of landscape. What is worrying are the knock-on effects: glacier retreat, degradation of permafrost, increased slope instability and shrinking water reserves available in summer.
Marmolada, an increasingly fragile glacier
Marmolada, together with Adamello and Mont Blanc, is for Legambiente one of the emblematic cases of the fragility of the Alpine arc. Driven by the heatwaves of recent weeks, the glacier continues to lose mass.
The ice now appears grey and deeply scored by meltwater streams, while its perimeter keeps shrinking. An image that starkly illustrates a transformation which, year after year, is changing the face of the mountains.
Climate data help to sketch a particularly critical picture. In Veneto, in June 2026, temperatures were more than 3 degrees above the 1991-2020 average. In July, the heat was exceptional especially at altitude, with the freezing level rising above 4,000 metres.
Permafrost is thawing and slopes are becoming more unstable
It is not only the loss of ice that is cause for concern. Warming at high elevations is also affecting permafrost, the ground that stays frozen for very long periods and helps hold the slopes together.
On Piz Boè, according to the Arpav report updated to 31 July, the active layer has exceeded 7.4 metres in depth. The figure does not directly describe conditions in the Dolomites of Belluno, but for Legambiente it is an important signal of a phenomenon that should be monitored far more widely.
The association is therefore calling for monitoring to be extended to the Pelmo, Antelao, Sorapiss, Civetta and Tofane massifs, especially in the light of recent rockfalls recorded on Pelmo's north-west face.
According to the figures cited by Legambiente, the province of Belluno has to contend every year with 150-200 collapses and landslides. A number that gives a sense of the pressure the slopes are under.
Water is part of the problem too
The glacier crisis does not affect only the mountains themselves. Retreating ice is also likely to impact water availability during the summer months, affecting aquifers and reservoirs.
Alpine huts are feeling the effects too. High-altitude water, Legambiente explains, can no longer be taken for granted. This is why the province of Belluno and CAI Veneto have launched a specific protocol to tackle the issue of water supply in mountain refuges.
It is one of the less visible but more concrete effects of the changing Alpine climate: the mountain is changing, and with it the conditions are changing for those who live there, visit it and work there.
"The Dolomites are not just a postcard backdrop"
In the face of this scenario, Legambiente Veneto is calling on the Veneto regional authorities to speed up approval of the Regional Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change, launched in 2021 but still awaiting final adoption.
"The Veneto Dolomites are not just a postcard backdrop, but a living system that is changing faster than public planning can keep up with," stresses Fabio Tullio, spokesperson for the Glacier Caravan in Veneto.
The campaign's message is therefore clear: it is not enough to watch the ice disappear. Slopes need to be monitored, the impact on water availability anticipated and the mountains prepared to cope with a climate that is already changing.
In this sense, Marmolada is far more than a retreating glacier: it is one of the clearest signs of how fast the Alpine environment is changing.
