The Alpine environment and in particular the cryosphere, is responding quickly and with great intensity to climate
change. Temperature increase observed in the Alps urge the scientific community to study not only air temperature but
also rock temperature, to deepen the knowledge about thermal properties of the potentially unstable geological
materials. The metrological traceability of measurements is fundamental for data comparability in space and in time and
this can be achieved by the use of calibrated instruments and with the evaluation of measurement uncertainties. Here
we present some preliminary results of rock-face temperature analysis based on data acquired at high-elevation sites, by
means of sensors with documented traceability to International System of Units Standards and evaluated measurement
uncertainty. We found and quantified a strong difference in the hourly rate of temperature increase between air and
rock. During summer rock temperature grows more than 8 times over air temperature