78) Montferrat

The current Montferrat icefield is a remnant of the glacier of the same name, located at an altitude of approximately 2,750 metres below the ridge between the Montferrat and Tapou peaks. It faces east on the Occitan slope. During the Little Ice Age, the former 8-hectare glacier took on the morphology of a hanging glacier, meaning that it did not extend beyond a length of around 380 metres. In its heyday, serac collapses must have been frequent. During the winter season, it continues to accumulate significant volumes of snow, generating frequent avalanches and snow slides (not glacial ice), the remains of which are visible until late summer at the bottom of the ravine, almost seven hundred metres below, on the route from the Ossoue Dam to the Baysellance Refuge.Currently, the Helero is significantly deteriorated, occupying about 0.2 hectares in the best-fed and most protected sector of the wall. Almost every year, snowfields form that make it difficult to observe, as in the summer of 2024.

Este aparato glaciar pertenece al siguiente macizo:

J) Vignemale Massif

Aragón
7 glaciers

Galería de imágenes

The Montferrat Glacier in the 1980s, accumulating significant volumes of ice. On the right is the Ossoue Glacier. (Postcard published by CAP-Théojac).

From a similar perspective, a deteriorated Helero de Montferrat in 2017, almost four decades after the previous image. (Jordi Camins).

In 2007, the Montferrat icefield from the summit of the same name. At the bottom of the ravine, at an altitude of around 2,000 metres, a small snowfield remains at the end of summer, the result of avalanches. (Gabriel Baena).