Mont Blanc shrinks by more than a metre in a year

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 15 Oct, 11:14 · Archive

Mont Blanc has fallen 1.29 metres in height to 4,807.47 metres, French surveyors said.

Mont Blanc, Western Europe's highest mountain, has shrunk by more than a metre in the past year to 4,807.47 metres above sea level, surveyors from the Haute-Savoie regional department said on Wednesday. Chartered surveyors from the Union Nationale des Géomètres-Experts and the Ordre des Géomètres-Experts used satellite technology and drones to measure the peak, putting it 1.29 metres lower than in 2025.

The mountain's height fluctuates significantly from year to year. The current measurement is nearly two metres higher than the peak's last recorded height in 2023, when it reached its lowest levels in recent memory. Over the longer term, the summit has declined 3.43 metres since reaching a high of 4,810.90 metres in 2007. The researchers have regularly monitored Mont Blanc since 2001.

The experts cautioned against linking year-to-year height fluctuations to the broader loss of Alpine ice caused by climate change. A spokesperson for UNGE stated that changes in surface altitude do not necessarily indicate changes in total ice mass, nor do they contradict the documented retreat of Alpine glaciers. The height fluctuations are driven by changes in the thickness of snow and ice on top of the mountain, determined by heat, wind and precipitation.

How it is being reported

• Mont Blanc nearly two metres taller than in 2023France's tallest mountain was nearly two metres higher last month than its last reported measurement in 2023, surveyors said Wednesday, putting the Alpine peak at 4,807.47 metres (15,772.5 feet). Researchers have been measuring the mountain every two years to three years since 2001, hoping to garner information about the impact of climate change on the Alps.France 24 · 15 Oct, 10:58
• Mont Blanc the ‘roof of Europe’ loses more than a metre of height in a yearPeak of French mountain now 4,807 metres high and fluctuates year by year due to changes in Alpine climate Europe’s highest peak shrank by more than a metre last year, data has shown. Mont Blanc in France now stands 4,807.47 metres above sea level, a team of surveyors from the Haute-Savoie regional department said on Wednesday, putting “the roof of Europe” 1.29 metres lower than in 2025. Continue reading...The Guardian · 14 Oct, 16:33

In this story: Mont Blanc · France · Haute-Savoie · Alps · Union Nationale des Géomètres-Experts

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