A new approach to glacier inventory, based on airborne laser-scanner data, has been applied to South Tyrol, Italy: it yields highly accurate results with a minimum of human supervision. Earlier inventories, from 1983 and 1997, are used to compare changes in area, volume and equilibrium-line altitude. A reduction of 32% was observed in glacier area from 1983 to 2006. Volume change, derived from the 1997 and 2006 digital elevation models, was –1.037 km3, and an ELA rise of 54 m, to almost 3000 m a.s.l., was calculated for this period. Losses vary widely for individual glaciers, but have accelerated for all South Tyrolean glaciers since the first inventory in 1983.

Moraines of the Younger Dryas ˚Egesen Stadial", which are widespread features in the Alps, are a valuable terrestrial data source for quantitative palaeoclimatic studies. The depression of the early Younger Dryas (Egesen-I) equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) shows a distinct spatial pattern. It was greatest (about –450 to –500 m vs present day) m areas exposed towards the west and northwest. In the central, more sheltered valleys it was on the order of –300 m or less. Summer temperature depression, which can be derived from the Younger Dryas timberline depression, was on the order of –3.5 K. The stochastic glacier-climate model of Ohmura and others (1992), which relates summer temperature and precipitation at the ELA, is used to infer precipitation change. Results are compared with those obtained from the glacial-meteorological approach of Kuhn (1981a). The two models produce highly similar results. During the early Younger Dryas, climate in the central valleys of the Alps seems to have been considerably drier than today In areas open to the west and northwest, precipitation seems to have been the same as today or even slightly higher. These results, which are based on a rather dense network of data points, agree well with results from permafrost-climate studies and the more qualitative information from palaeobotanical research. They also support the results from atmospheric general circulation models for the Younger Dryas in Europe, which point towards a more zonal type of circulation.

Three cirques in the Ferwall group, western Tyrol, Austria, which are characterized by distinct Late-glacial moraines and rock glaciers, are discussed. The morphology of the moraines and the depression of the equilibrium-line altitude suggest they were deposited during the Egesen Stadial (Younger Dryas), which can be subdivided into three substages. Rock-glacier formation was initialized during or after the Egesen II substage. They became inactive at the Pleistocene—Holocene transition. ELA values are 290–320 m lower than the Little Ice Age ELA during the Egesen I substage, 190–230 m lower during the Egesen II substage and 120 —160 m lower during the Egesen III substage. The lowering of the rock-glacier belt (discontinuous permafrost) during and after the Egesen II substage is about 400 m, indicating a mean annual air-temperature depression in the order of 3 K. During the Egesen I (earlyYounger Dryas), the climate seems to have been rather cold and wet with precipitation similar to present-day values. During later phases (Egesen II and III), the climate remained cold and became increasingly drier. The rise of the ELA during the Egesen I—III substages seems to have been mainly caused by a decrease in precipitation.

The former glacier at the type locality of the “Gschnitz Stadial” of the Alpine Late-glacial chronology is interpreted from a paleoglaciological and paleoclimatological point of view. The equilibrium-line altitude, ice flux through selected cross sections and mass-balance gradients are calculated from reconstructed glacier topography. They are used to determine total net ablation and accumulation and precipitation under the assumption of steady-state. The former temperature at the ELA and temperature change is estimated using various glacier—climate models. Precipitation was less than one-third of today’s values, and summer temperature was roughly 10°C lower than today. The climate during the Gschnitz Stadial appears to have been cold and continental, and was more similar to full glacial conditions than to the Younger Dryas climate in the Alps. This is further evidence for an older age of the Gschnitz Stadial.

Equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs) are reconstructed for Hintereisferner, Tyrol, Austria, using temperature and precipitation records for the period from 1859 to the present. The basic idea is to calibrate simple statistical models using observations of the ELA over the period 1964–92. Results are compared with those of Kuhn’s glacial–meteorological model of ELA fluctuations. Correlation coefficients between observed and predicted ELAs arc 0.91 for the glacial–meteorological model and 0.98 for the multiple regression model. The calibrated model allows backward extrapolation of the ELA from the longer climatic records (‘Austrian Temperature Series” since 1775; precipitation at Marienberg, South Tyrol, since 1858). ELAs after the glacier maximum of the 1850s were rather high until the 1870s, when they show a trend towards lower values. The lowest values, about 200 m lower than the “1850” average, were finally reached in 1912–14. During the years 1907–26, the ELA of Hintereisferner was lower than the “1850” average in 13 out of 20 years. This led to the widespread glacier advance of the 1920s in the Alps. After this, the ELA rose constantly, reaching its highest value in 1947. From the early 1950s until 1980 there was a trend towards lower ELAs again, which has been succeeded by a period of very high ELAs. The period from the late 1920s to the early 1960s was the longest period of almost constantly high ELAs since the middle of the 19th century.