Martin Hoelzle is professor for physical geography at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He is, member of the Swiss Advisory Body on Climate Change (OcCC) of the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC), scientific advisor the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) and former president of the Swiss Snow, Ice and Permafrost Society. Since 30 years, he is involved in the development of modern, strongly interdisciplinary cryospheric monitoring strategies and has a broad knowledge about the complex processes chains related to many interactions between climate and the mountain environment.