almost all other glaciers in the Alps, and most glaciers on the globe as well, due to global warming the Gorner Glacier is a retreating glacier—and in quite a dramatic way. Nowadays (2014), Gorner Glacier retreats about every year, but with a record loss of in 2008. Since its last major expansion (in the modern era, after the last glacial period) in 1859, it lost more than in distance. In these days ( 2015) this becomes quite obvious because the uneducated visitor usually misidentifies Gorner Glacier's main tributary as its upper part: the Grenzgletscher () on the south side of the central, visible Monte Rosa massif. However, the upper Gorner Glacier traditionally is to be found on the north side. The reason is that the upper part of the Gorner Glacier is currently losing contact with its lower part and now the Grenzgletscher has become its much larger tributary. So it is easy to mismatch the Border Glacier as the upper Gorner Glacier. But this was not the case in earlier times, as the following comparison impressively shows (be also aware of the retreating of the Monte Rosa Glacier in the middle, the one in between Gorner and Border Glaciers): See also List of glaciers in Switzerland List of glaciers Retreat of glaciers since 1850 Swiss Alps References External links Gorner Glacier glaciology.ethz.ch Gorner Glacier swisseduc.ch Glaciers of Valais Glaciers of the Alps