This work is inspired by the awesome phenomenon of an avalanche and with it the increasing risk of glacial ablation – the loss of ice and snow from a glacial system. There is undeniable evidence that the world’s ice stores are melting and are at risk of being lost forever, with dire consequences for future generations. Scientists continue to make the important observation that ice is ‘nature’s most exquisite thermometer’. As the earth’s climate warms, ice melts irreversibly: snow caps thaw and glaciers rapidly recede—their environmental sustaining function and exquisite jewel-like beauty lost forever. This observation underscores the work of glaciologists and others who correctly caution that the melting of the world’s glaciers is a ‘canary in the coalmine’ wake-up call, the warning signals of which we ignore at our peril.