Combined with remote sensing and GIS,the spatial variability of glacier elevation changes in Youyi area of the Altay Mountain in China were obtained from two digital elevation models(one is from 1: 50 000 topographic map in 1959 and the other is from ASTER remote sensing data in 2008). Elevation changes were converted to volume changes by multiplication with the respective glacier area. This research presents elevation and area changes from 1985 to 1999 for about 58 glaciers in the Youyi area. The area of the glaciers had reduced 19. 2%. The average area of individual glaciers had reduced 0. 363km~2. 10 glaciers had melted away and the mean elevation change was-24. 12 m. The volume had reduced 2. 66km~3,and the annual glacier runoff was 4. 88 * 106m~3. The analysis shows that the amounts of the glaciers with a size smaller than 1km~2 are 67%,but the area and volume mainly concentrated in those larger than 1km~2. So the elevation and volume changes of several larger glaciers determined the change trend in this region; the absolute variation of the smaller glaciers was small,but the relative change rate was much bigger,and the sensitivity to climate change was much stronger.