The Eiskar is the only existing

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

in the

Carnic Alps The Carnic Alps (; ; ; ) are a range of the Southern Limestone Alps in Austria and northeastern Italy. They are within Austrian East Tyrol and Carinthia, and Italian Friuli (Province of Udine) and marginally in Veneto. Etymology They are ...

, a mountain range in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It is a typical

cirque glacier {{No footnotes, date=October 2024 A cirque glacier is formed in a cirque, a bowl-shaped depression on the side of or near mountains. Snow and ice accumulation in corries often occurs as the result of avalanching from higher surrounding slopes. If ...

that, thanks to its shady location and to

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a Grade (slope), slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be triggered spontaneously, by factors such as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, othe ...

breaks in its catchment area, has been able to survive at the relatively low height of 2160–2390 metres above sea level. Although the ice sheet in good times could calve over a rock wall down to the pasture of ''Valentinalm'' below, currently it is rapidly becoming a sheet of

dead ice Dead ice is the ice in a part of a glacier or ice sheet that is no longer moving. As the ice melts, it leaves behind a hummocky terrain known as dead-ice moraine. Dead-ice moraine is produced by the accumulation of sediments carried by glaciers t ...

. In the period 2007–2014, however, no significant retreat was observed. The glacier may be accessed from below up a ''

klettersteig A via ferrata (Italian for "iron path", plural ''vie ferrate'' or in English ''via ferratas'') is a protected climbing route found in the Alps and certain other Alpine locations. The protection includes steel fixtures such as cables and railing ...

'', and from above quite easily via the Kellerwand rock face. Remains of defensive positions witness to the

mountain war of 1915-1918 The White War (, , ) is the name given to the fighting in the high-altitude Alpine sector of the Italian front (World War I), Italian front during the First World War, principally in the Dolomites, the :it:Gruppo Ortles-Cevedale, Ortles-Ceveda ...

References

External links

Glacier report of 2004/05
(pdf file; 792 kB)
Private webpage
Glaciers of Austria Glaciers of the Alps Carnic Alps GEiskar {{austria-glacier-stub