Schlatenkees: In Just 7 Years, a Mighty Glacier Tongue Became a Lake

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Schlatenkees: In Just 7 Years, a Mighty Glacier Tongue Became a Lake.

Imagine standing in a place in the Alps where just a few years ago a massive wall of ice lay – and instead seeing water today. That's exactly what happened at the Schlatenkees in the High Tauern. Slovenian photographer Mitja Kobal has been documenting there since 2019 how a once-mighty glacier tongue has become a lake in just seven years. His before-and-after images make the transformation tangible like few other projects can.

What makes this case special: geological changes typically unfold on timescales that exceed a human lifetime. At the Schlatenkees, by contrast, seven years were enough to lose an entire glacier tongue. The photos Kobal has taken during this period tell the story of this transformation step by step.

What exactly happened at the Schlatenkees?

The Schlatenkees lies in the High Tauern, the highest mountain range in the Alps. What lay there for centuries as a massive glacier tongue is today a lake. According to Focus Stars, a direct before-and-after comparison shows the massive retreat of the glacier – and with it the transformation from ice masses to a body of water that has taken place within just a few years.

Images like these have an impact because they don't explain climate change in the abstract – they make it visible. Place the 2019 photo next to the current image, and you immediately see: something fundamental has changed here.

Who is behind the images?

Behind the documentation is Mitja Kobal, a photographer from Slovenia. He has been accompanying the Schlatenkees with his camera since 2019 and has captured the transformation from glacier tongue to lake in a photo series. His images compellingly show what happened to the glacier in just seven years – providing evidence that goes beyond mere measurements.

Why these images are so significant

Glaciers are sensitive to changes in temperature and precipitation. When a glacier tongue disappears completely within such a short period and a lake forms in its place, that's more than just a local phenomenon – it's a clear signal. The Schlatenkees is exemplary of a development that can be observed in many high mountain regions of Europe.

Kobal's images make visible something that numbers alone often fail to convey: the scale and speed of the change. That's precisely why his before-and-after images have an impact that extends far beyond the Alpine region.

Conclusion: Seven years that changed everything

Mitja Kobal's images show more than just a geographical change – they are a quiet warning. Anyone who sees the comparison between 2019 and today immediately understands what climate change concretely means in the high mountains. If you travel in the Alps yourself or care about glacier regions, such documentation is worth a look: it shows how quickly ice can become water – and how short seven years really are on geological timescales.