Mountain soils represent a finite, virtually non-renewable resource that provides essential ecosystem services for life on Earth, not only in the mountains but also downstream (FAO and ITPS, 2015). Although the average soil formation rate is not easy to assess, due to the variability of the soil forming factors (Jenny, 1941; Weil & Brady, 2017), FAO estimated that the formation of 2–3 cm of fertile soil can require up to 1000 years. Such rates, which refer to soils in general, suggest that unsuitable soil management practices lead to soil degradation and loss that cannot be remediated in the average human lifespan. In many mountain regions of the world, the landscape was strongly shaped by glaciations (Martignier & Verrecchia, 2013). Mountain soils are often subject to regressive pedogenesis due to disturbances (e.g. profile truncation and soil redistribution due to soil erosion & snow avalanches), thus they may be particularly fragile and vulnerable to degradation (Egli, 2014). Egli (2014) reported that mountain soils on silicate parent material can form at variable speeds ranging from nearly 0 (for older soils) to 6–7 mm y-1 for very young, thin soils, showing a clear decreasing trend with time. The soil forming factors according to Jenny (1941), i.e. climate, living organisms (including humans), relief, parent material, and time, show complex, strong interactions in mountain regions. For example, when considering the climate effect, a large set of variables must be taken into account (Thornton et al., 2021). The occurrence of snowfall and the snow-cover distribution across the year strongly affect the upper soil layers, making soil and snow act as a continuum