Vedretta di Scais, Alpine glacier in Orobie Alps, Lombardy, Italy

Vedretta di Scais is an Alpine glacier situated between 2450 and 2900 meters in altitude, lying between the peaks of Pizzo Redorta and Punta Scais in the eastern Italian Alps. The glacier flows across steep mountain terrain and maintains its position through narrow valleys and exposed rock faces that characterize this part of the Orobie range.

At the start of the 19th century, during the Little Ice Age, the glacier probably filled almost the whole Scais valley and was joined to the nearby Vedretta di Porola; no photographs document this. The two ice bodies are now separated by the Cresta Corti, a rocky ridge whose highest point is Punta Scais. Meltwater runs down the Val Caronno into Lago di Scais and then the Adda.

The word vedretta is the Italianised form of a local Alpine term for glacier, with variants edrèta in Bergamasque Lombard, vedreta in Valtellinese Lombard and vadret in Romansh. It is used above all for the glaciers of the Orobie Alps, Valtellina, Val Camonica and the Grisons.

Reaching this glacier requires specialized mountaineering gear and experience with ice travel, as the terrain is steep and exposed. The warmest months provide the most stable and safest conditions for anyone planning to visit the glacier.

Between 1990 and 1998 the glacier shrank from 29 to 25.5 hectares, a loss of 12 percent, and by 2007 surveys gave only 14 hectares. Meltwater from the ice joins the Porola stream, runs down the Val Caronno and empties into the Lago di Scais before reaching the Adda.