incrementally flowing down into valleys, lakes and oceans, the slow motion march of glaciers has etched the earth’s surface for eons – but today these remote white worlds are under threat. with the puzzling exception of the Karakoram range, the world’s glaciers are retreating at an alarming rate, with geologists predicting that some of Africa’s little-known ones could disappear completely before the decade is out

created by the accumulation of snow over centuries, glaciers are found on every continent bar Australia. surprisingly, many remain unmapped and unphotographed, which is where Project Pressure comes in. founded in 2008 by lifestyle photographer Klaus Thymann, the not-for-profit initiative is slowly creating an archive of glacier photography which will form the basis of a touring exhibition and global glacier atlas. working in collaboration with the World Glacier Monitoring Service and NASA, the project carefully records GPS co-ordinates to compare glacial retreat, and has been recognised as an official contributor to the Global Terrestrial Network for Glaciers

with a focus on endangered and ignored glaciers, the project has already documented areas of Alaska, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Greenland, Iceland, Montana, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the Rwenzori mountains that straddle the DRC and Uganda. in May, super/collider will be sponsoring and accompanying Project Pressure’s first expedition to Asia – first to the Lirung glacier in Nepal, then on up the valley towards the more remote (and unnamed) ice packs closer to China – so stay tuned

image: the Spegazzini glacier in Argentina photographed by Project Pressure in 2008