Pasterze Glacier

The Pasterze is the longest glacier in Austria and the longest glacier in the Eastern Alps, lying in the Glockner Group of the High Tauern range in Carinthia, directly beneath the highest peak in the country, the Grossglockner. As of a 2006 survey it measured about 8.3 kilometers long and covered about 18.5 square kilometers, ranging in elevation from about 3,453 to 2,100 meters with an ice thickness of roughly 120 meters, and it originates below the Johannisberg peak, feeding the Moll river. The glacier is a major tourist destination, reached by the Grossglockner High Alpine Road and a funicular railway, but it is retreating rapidly, its margin having pulled back roughly 300 meters from the lower funicular station since the railway opened in 1963.