Picture of the Gorner Glacier taken in 1863 is seen displayed in the same location in 2019 in Zermatt
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| People walk in the Ice Cave at the Rhone Glacier at the Furka
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THE FURKA PASS, Switzerland (Reuters) - On the hairpin bend of a Swiss mountain pass, a Victorian-era hotel built for tourists to admire the Rhone Glacier has been abandoned now that the ice has retreated nearly 2 km (1.2 miles) uphill.
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| Camera is pictured in front of the Eiger and Moensch mountains in Wengen
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Where mighty glaciers once spilled into Swiss valleys like frozen rivers of ice, a residue of grey scree and boulders remains, spliced through with raging streams.
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| The Lac des Dix, a concrete gravity dam collecting water from the glaciers for the production of electricity, is seen in Heremence
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A Reuters montage of images - showing photos of modern-day mountain landscapes next to archive shots of the same scenes decades earlier - reveals the dramatic change
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| The Rhone Glacier and Belvedere Hotel are seen in the Swiss Alps in Obergoms
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More than 500 Swiss glaciers have already vanished, and the government says 90% of the remaining 1,500 will go by the end of the century if nothing is done to cut emissions.
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Water flows down the Trient Glacier on a hot summer day in Trient
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Their retreat is expected to have a major impact on water levels - possibly raising them initially as the ice melts but depleting them long term. Officials fear the changes could trigger rockfalls and other hazards and affect the economy.
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| The Cabane de Prarochet mountain hut is pictured next to the Tsanfleuron Glacier near Saviese
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The Belvedere Hotel, built in the 1880s during a surge in Alpine tourists, was an early victim of the decline. Once the scene of wild parties, it features in a James Bond car chase in "Goldfinger".
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A woman takes a picture of the Ice Cave at the Rhone Glacier at the Furka
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Visitors can still walk into a cave carved into the glacier. But the ice above is now draped with huge white sheets to reflect the sun's heat. Despite such efforts, melt waters have formed a green lake.
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| People sit above the Aletsch Glacier in the Swiss Alps at the Eggishorn in Fieschertal
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Down the valley, a mid 19th century photograph shows the glacier's bulging snout more than 100 metres thick. Now, animals graze and a river meanders on the same spot.
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| The Eiger, Guggi and Giesen Glaciers are pictured in Wengen
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In another archive photograph taken in the late 19th century in front of the Aletsch glacier - the largest in the Alps - a man sits on a boulder in front of a huge ice channel that merges with the main ice stream below. Today, they no longer join.
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| A patch of snow is covered for tourists to use with slides later in the season on the Tsanfleuron Glacier near Les Diablerets
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Landlocked Switzerland is warming at twice the global rate and over the last year its glaciers have lost 2% of volume, said Mathias Huss, who heads Switzerland's glacier monitoring institute GLAMOS which has data stretching back 150 years.
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| The Aletsch Glacier is pictured from the Eggishorn in the Swiss Alps in Fieschertal
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"We have never seen such a fast rate of glacial decline since the measurements have started," he said.
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| The Diablerets and Tsanfleuron Glaciers are pictured from Saviese
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Some hope that politics can make a difference, especially after the Greens surged in an October election. The "Glacier Initiative" calling for more climate measures collected more than the 100,000 signatures required to trigger a referendum and will be sent to Bern this week.
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The Aletsch Glacier is pictured in the Swiss Alps in Belalp
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But the glaciers will keep shrinking, scientists say. "The Alps will still be beautiful in my opinion, but they will be different," Huss said.
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The Trient Glacier is pictured in 1891 in Trient
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| The Aletsch Glacier is pictured from the Eggishorn between 1860 and 1877 in Fieschertal
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| The Eiger, Guggi and Giesen Glaciers are pictured near the Jungfrau between 1890 and 1900 in Wengen
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