Abstract ID: 3.11489 | Accepted as Talk | Talk/Oral | TBA | TBA

Glaciers are dynamic sites of human-nonhuman entanglement, where material transformations intersect with shifting imaginaries of nature and place. In the Monte Rosa region, glacial retreat is not only a physical phenomenon but also a social and affective one, shaping how people perceive, experience, and engage with mountain environments. This paper examines the lived and mediated encounters through which glaciers are made present or absent—whether through direct engagement with the landscape, public discourse, or visual technologies such as repeat photography. Drawing on qualitative research with those who dwell near or interact with glaciers, I explore how these encounters structure affective relations with the ice and contribute to future imaginaries of mountain environments. By situating glacial loss within the broader social construction of nature and human-more-than-human relations, I argue that loss is not merely a rupture but a generative force that reconfigures possibilities for inhabiting and imagining high-altitude landscapes. This perspective challenges deterministic narratives of decline and opens space for alternative socio-ecological futures.