Fleece Blanket Keeps Glacier Cool for Summer
A cable car in the Swiss resort town of Andermatt carries rolls of a special synthetic fleece blanket to the top of the Gemstock glacier ski run. The fleece will be used to cover snow to keep it from melting. Landolt hide caption
Warming temperatures mean that many glaciers are shrinking. A ski company using the Gemstock glacier above Andermatt, Switzerland, has answered this trend by wrapping a critical ski ramp near the top of the glacier in synthetic material.
The company hopes that the blanket will slow the glacier's melting over the summer in an area around the cable car station.
If the blanket is successful, skiers will be able to ski right out of the station and down the mountain. If the blanket doesn't slow the melting, then a new ramp will have to be built out of snow and ice when the winter arrives.