Glaciers (including ice sheets) are known to contain the memory of past climate and environment. The Arctic, Antarctic, and mid-to-low latitude high mountains serve as repositories for these valuable data. The ongoing, unprecedented warming is rapidly melting these glaciers, putting our precious Earth’s memory at risk. To address this, the Ice Memory Foundation (IMF) initiative aims to collect, preserve, and manage ice cores from selected glaciers that are currently in danger of shrinkage or disappearance. While high mountain regions possess critical ice cores for studying climate change, they often pose more significant challenges due to more rapid melting and difficult drilling conditions. There has been insufficient coordinated drilling program in global high mountains as compared with polar regions. To promote the ideas and actions of the IMF initiative globally, there is now a concerted effort to integrate drilling operations and research in high mountain regions with those taking place in polar regions. 

To facilitate further discussion about these issues, a workshop was successfully held in Lanzhou, China, during 25-27 September of 2023 with three days of field tour to the glacier in Qilian Mountains. The workshop allowed for discussions surrounding strategies for saving ice cores, updated technologies for dating and amending ice core records, and examinations of ice core studies from an anthropogenic viewpoint. The workshop aimed to bridge ice core research in polar regions and high mountains and connect ice core science with policymakers and society, as well as identifying IMF potential operations. 

This workshop was organized and sponsored by the State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (SKLCS, NIEER, CAS), ICE MEMORY Foundation, International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS), Chinese National Committee for International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (CNC-IACS), and China Society of Cryospheric Science (CSCS).