Wellhorn
Past extents come from the Swiss Glacier Inventories of 1850, 1931, 1973 and 2016. Future extents are illustrative: each glacier’s projected area (OGGM, median of CMIP6 climate models) is removed from its lowest ice upward. About the scenarios. This glacier has no model run of its own; its future follows the typical path of glaciers its size.
Wellhorn is one of 1,400 glaciers in Switzerland, covering 0.11 km² in the canton of Bern. Its ice spans 2,059 to 2,263 m and faces north. Its meltwater drains to the Rhine and on to the North Sea. In 1850, at the end of the Little Ice Age, it covered 0.35 km²; by 2016 it had lost 69% of that area. Between 2012 and 2024 its surface dropped by 14 m on average. No glacier model run exists for it; on the map it follows the typical path of glaciers its size.
Facts
Area over time
Past areas are the ice body this glacier belonged to at the time. Projections: OGGM median, SSP2-4.5.
- SGI id
- A54j-07
- Canton
- Bern
- River
- Rhine → North Sea
- Basin
- Upper Aare
- Location
- 46.6560° N, 8.1300° E · swisstopo map
- Elevation
- 2,059–2,263 m, median 2,118 m
- Slope, aspect
- 26°, north
- Debris cover
- 0.11 km² (99% of the area)
- Inventory image
- 2015
More in the Upper Aare basin
- Unteraargletscher22.70 km²
- Triftgletscher14.56 km²
- Gauligletscher10.83 km²
- Unterer Grindelwaldgletscher9.17 km²
- Oberer Grindelwaldgletscher8.33 km²
- Obers Ischmeer E7.34 km²
- Steigletscher5.56 km²
- Rosenlouwigletscher5.39 km²
- Tschingelfirn S (Kandersteg)5.05 km²
- Oberaargletscher3.95 km²
- Rottalgletscher (Lauterbrunnen)3.62 km²
- Breithorngletscher (Lauterbrunnen)2.53 km²
Sources
- Linsbauer et al. (2021). The new Swiss Glacier Inventory SGI2016. Frontiers in Earth Science 9. doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.704189
- Mannerfelt et al. (2022). Halving of Swiss glacier volume since 1931 observed from terrestrial image photogrammetry. The Cryosphere 16. doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3249-2022
- GLAMOS – Glacier Monitoring Switzerland. www.glamos.ch
Relief: swisstopo swissALTIRegio. 1850 and 1973 outlines: Maisch et al. (2000), Müller et al. (1976), Paul (2004). Length, mass balance and volume change: GLAMOS releases 2025. All sources and methods.