Perhaps the claim would be that the objects have been gradually sinking toward the surface with the melt. Also, while they say vaguely that it's the least snow

Perhaps the claim would be that the objects have been gradually sinking toward the surface with the melt. Also, while they say vaguely that it's the least snow in memory (under a photo caption: "Domestic reindeer cool themselves on a formerly permanent ice patch (left) that melted away completely during the summer of 2018 for the first time in local memory."), that doesn't mean much. So called local memory isn't a very accurate recording. Maybe there were some other great melts across a thousand years.