Gepatschferner, Alpine glacier between Kaunertal and Graun im Vinschgau, Austria and Italy

Gepatschferner is a large expanse of ice straddling the border between Tyrol and South Tyrol, extending over several kilometers and serving as an important water reservoir for the region. The glacier landscape displays typical features like crevasses, moraines, and meltwater streams that continuously reshape the terrain.

The glacier formed during the Ice Age and reached its maximum extent near the end of the Little Ice Age about 170 years ago. Since then it has been continuously losing volume due to climate changes and retreating further back.

The name derives from the Romansh compaccio, meaning "barren field", a term from the Rhaeto-Romance speech once widespread in this border area. At the Fernergarten, where the glacier tongue once ended, stands the Gepatschhaus, built in 1873 and protected as a monument: the first German Alpine Club hut in Austria.

The glacier is not a site visitors can walk on; the Kaunertal glacier ski area above it is reached by road from the valley end, and the Falginjoch gondola replaced the two Weißsee drag lifts in 2019. Since 2000 there has been no summer skiing, and the area now closes in mid-May. Snow farming after the May season keeps autumn operation possible.

The glacier's tongue was still 250 m thick when measured in 1996. Its meltwater, the Gepatschbach, leaves the ice at about 2080 m and feeds the Gepatschspeicher reservoir at the end of the Kaunertal. A small part of the ice drains southwest over the Langtauferer Eiswände into South Tyrol.