Mont Blanc Shrinks by Over a Metre in a Year, Surveyors Find

Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe, has lost more than a metre of height in the past year, according to surveyors who measured the mountain this week. The summit now stands at 4,807.47 metres above sea level - 1.29 metres lower than in 2025.

The mountain's official height is around 4,792 metres, but the summit shifts constantly as heat, wind and precipitation alter the thickness of snow and ice on top. The figure recorded during an expedition last month was 1.88 metres greater than in 2023, when the peak hit its lowest level in recent memory.

Chartered surveyors from the Union Nationale des Géomètres-Experts and the Ordre des Géomètres-Experts, who have tracked the peak since 2001, used satellite technology and drones to build a detailed model of the snow and ice cap. Since a high of 4,810.90 metres in 2007, the summit has dropped by 3.43 metres.

The experts warned against reading too much into year-to-year changes. A UNGE spokesperson said it was essential to distinguish between surface altitude and the total volume or mass of ice, noting that a higher summit does not necessarily mean the mountain has gained ice - nor does it contradict the documented retreat of Alpine glaciers.

Jean des Garets, who led the expedition, said the warming trend is visible to the naked eye elsewhere in the Alps, but that above 4,000 metres climate change does not yet appear to have had the same impact. He described passing the Tête-Rousse glacier, which has melted before their eyes, with streams now crossing where ice once lay.