Dear Authors,

The topic of your paper is timely and interesting. You provide original data which will be clearly beneficial to the community. The reviews are for the most part positive. I therefore encourage you to submit a revised version that I will review and possibly, but not necessarily, send again to reviewers. One issue that needs to be strengthened is the actual ballasting effect of the gypsum crystals. You morphological analysis clearly would benefit from a more elaborate aspect. For example, have you thought of measuring the specific surface area of the crystals to address the porosity issue? This would really be enlightening. An adequate method for this type of solid may be the BET method using methane adsorption. There is an appropriate system at PSI in Switzerland. Building your own system would probably be too time-consuming. I strongly suggest you explore this issue before submitting a revised version. I am ready to accept that such measurements cannot be done within the usual time frame for a revision, but please at least give it a try.

I look forward to your revised version.

Best regards,

Florent Domine

Dear Authors,

Thank you for uploading your revised version. You are however supposed to also upload a detailed description of the changes you have made in response to the referees’ comments. You did reply to the referees and your responses are available on the web site. However, how you actually implemented these changes in the manuscript needs to be detailed in your response file. Typically, authors compile a file with their responses and explaining how and where the changes have been made in the manuscript. This is followed by the manuscript in track changes mode, as you have done.

Thank you for considering this procedure.

Best regards,

Florent Domine

Dear Authors,

Thank you for the revised version of your manuscript. I think that your responses address the reviewers’ comments adequately, and I am therefore happy to accept it for publication in The Cryosphere. I think your results are original and novel, and will make an interesting contribution to our journal. I will recommend that your paper be highlighted in The Cryosphere.

For your information, our policy regarding appendices and supplements is about to change. Supplements similar to yours will in the future have to be submitted as appendices. Please check our new guidelines, which will appear on our website in about a month, for your future submissions.

I thank you for submitting your work to The Cryosphere and wish you the best of luck in your future research. Also make sure to stay well in the current troubled times.

Best regards,

Florent Domine