With the support of the Solda/Sulden gondola management, I recently installed a Harbortronics (https://www.harbortronics.com) time-lapse camera at the top station of the gondola where there is a great view out over Suldenferner. I’ve not worked too much with time-lapse cameras, but as a first step, and to see how the conditions were during an intensive period of study during August and September, I set up the camera to take images at 15 minute intervals, to make the following timelapse video:

The video shows a couple of scientifically interesting things: (1) very variable weather during this season (You can check the weather for the Ortler region on Berfex) (2) the changing pattern of shadow across the glacier due to the terrain and the clouds (3) some changes in the debris-covered area around the meltwater stream and (4) early snowfall events in September, which cover the glacier and then melt away in a few days.

You can also see that the summit of Ortler is often in the cloud, but good weather windows persist for a few days at a time. In the early morning images, when it is still dark, you can see the headlamps of the climbers ascending from Hintergrathütte up the Hintergrat route in the upper right of the image.

The camera is now set to capture 2 images per day, at 10:00 and 11:00 UTC, so that I can observe the changes over the coming year.