Look: A special wrap for an Italian glacier to save it from melting

On the border of Lombardy and Trentino Alto Adige regions, workers unroll the sheets in long covering an area at an altitude of 2700 to 3000 meters. The Austrian made tarps cover cost upto $450 each and takes the team six weeks to install them. And another six weeks to remove them before the winter sets in again.

Franco Del Pero who leads the operation told AFP that technological improvement means contemporary tarps protect better than earlier versions.

An aerial photo shows workers covering with huge geotextile sheets the Presena glacier (2700m-3000m) on the Val di Sole near Pellizzano in Trentino, northern Italy, in order to delay snow melting on skiing slopes.

A huge sheet put up on the the Presena glacier.

Once the ski season is over, the cable cars are berthed, conservationist race to try and stop it melting by using white tarps that block the sun's ray.

Summer is here and the alpine ice is being protected from global warming. In northern Italy the Presena glacier has lost more than one third of its volume since 1993.

A huge sheet is put on the Presena glacier, in order to delay snow melting on ski slopes.The covering are geotextile tarpaulins that reflect sunlight , maintaining a temperature lower than the external one, and thus preserving as much snow as possible.

Workers move methodically down the mountain under the clear blue skies to pull the coverings taut, to sew them together to ensure warm drafts do not slip underneath. Bags of sands then act as anchors against the winds.