It has been established that glacial icings are widespread on Spitsbergen. Supraglacial icings occur due to meltwater emerging at the cold glacier surface and filling englacial cavities. The formation of icings results in the reorganization of glacier runoff. In some cases the ice of the icings protects the glacier surface from summer melting. The author has identified 110 proglacial icings, occurring at the snouts of glaciers or at some distance from them, due to the emergence of water from the glacier or from the subglacial talik zone in winter. Maximum icing growth occurs in the first half of the winter. Genetically they belong to the intermediate type. The properties of the icings and the volume and chemical composition of the water forming them are reviewed. The existence of proglacial icings has been recorded in the cases of both temperate and transitional two‐layered glaciers, with areas ranging from 2.9 km2to several hundred km2; they are absent in the case of small glaciers which are frozen to their beds. The two main mechanisms controlling the occurrence of two‐layered glaciers, and related to glacier morphology, namely changes in climatic conditions and changes in types of ice‐formation, are described. The resultant glaciers may be either quasi‐stable or unstable. On the other hand a glacier may experience intense freezing in its upper part, which may lead to cessation of winter discharge and the initiation of a proglacial icing.