Swiss Glacier Days

After spending much of the past two weeks trying to stay out of crevasses as I climbed the two highest mountains in Western Europe, I now found myself deep within a glacier, for two days in a row. The blue ice, the penetrating cold, and the noise of dripping water and creaking as it ground its way downhill will forever remain in my mind. But before I tell you the story of how I ended up in a glacier let me back up a little.

I left Zermatt still a little torn over my decision to leave the Matterhorn for another day, but I know in my heart that I made the right call. I caught the train down the valley and headed off to Brigerbad – a huge thermal pool complex.

After two long hard days of climbing soaking in the hot water was bliss. Although, I decided to be a kid and also rode the water slides – they were among the fastest hydro-slides I've ever been on. Another really neat part of the complex was a pool called the "grotto". You can see a picture of this on the far left of my photo of their entrance sign. The grotto was like an artificial cave with the hot water flooding up through the floor. The overall setting of the pools literally surrounding by mountains was amazing.

Then onto Brig – a city of 12,000 sitting beside the Rhône and Saltine Rivers. In fact, the name Brig comes from the word 'bridge'. It also sits at the base of the Swiss side of the Simplon Pass that crosses over the Alps to Italy. I drove by a really interesting building (I was too long soaking in the hot pools to pay it a visit) that my guide book said was the Stockalperschloss. Apparently, a guy by the name of Kaspar von Stockalper (born 1609 – died 1691) got super rich by dominating the Simplon Pass trade routes. He had a palace built for himself in 1651-61. It is somewhat unique in its architectural style with the three towers and their onion-like domes. It is now owned by the city and houses a museum.

The Stockalperschloss in Brig.

I visited the local supermarket just before closing time then drove up into the hills seeking a camping site. I followed steep and twisty roads that must have been the old highway before the new tunnel was built through the mountain in the 1960s. There were many "Camping Verboten" (i.e., no camping allowed) signs so I thought my tent on the ridge beside the road would be too conspicuous. So, stealth camping took a new turn as I pulled the car off the road to create an area between the car and the metal crash-barrier. I fired up another of these portable BBQs and had a feast of different types of sausages (one of my favorite meals). My guide book said this area of Switzerland is famous for hunting during the autumn/fall and that you should capitalize on opportunities to try the local game meats. Therefore, I was delighted to find wild boar and deer sausages (the meats mixed into a single sausage) at the supermarket. I had to laugh out loud though when opening the packet I saw that the wild boar was 5% and the deer 38% with the rest being beef. And about the local flavor, well the package said that the deer was farm raised from New Zealand.

Sunset from my sausage BBQ location above Brig.

But the views more than made up for any sausage disappointment (they were still excellent by the way). Watching the sun set over down the Rhône Valley while the shadows crept up the surrounding peaks was a real treat.

 Close up view of the last light – no filter on my camera by must be a lot of haze for this bright orange color.


Hardly any cars came by in the night which meant I had a good sleep, just using a ground sheet, inflatable mat, and sleeping bag. I do have to put in a plug for the sleeping mat I am using. It is the ExPed by Outdoor Research. It is inflatable with a bizarre hand pump (but about ten pumps and you are done) and contains down feathers for warmth. Best sleeping mat I have ever used.

Sunrise over my bivy spot beside the road.

Well rested I returned to the valley and followed the Rhône towards its source. I drove through a string of villages (collectively known as the Goms) that all had beautiful geranium-bedecked timber chalets and onion-domed churches. One of these towns was called Lax.

The local tourism board markets this town with the slogan: (Re)Lax. Not quite sure how you go about promoting one of the other towns I drove through along this same valley.

 The guidebook suggested taking a cable car ride (well actually two) from the town of Fiech. I have been amazed at the sheer number of these incredible engineering marvels as I have traveled through the Alps. Both the French term téléphérique and German seilbahn are the more common names in Europe. These are different systems than the gondola systems found on North America ski resorts as there are only two cars – one coming up and one down which you pass in the middle.

Leaving the quaint village at 1050 meters (3,445 feet) above sea level we travelled (about 50 hikers, climbers, but mostly day trippers going to look at the view) jammed standing up in the car to an intermediate station. Then onto the second line emerging at 2,926 meters (9,600 feet) at a peak called Eggishorn where the view down to the Aletch Glacier is simply incredible. Be sure to click on the Eggishorn link and check out the panorama link. The site of a 23 km (14 mile) long glacier curving beneath your feet is hard to comprehend. This is the largest glacier in Europe and it covers more than 120 square kilometers (more than 45 square miles). A couple of photos trying out wide angle view feature on my camera – one looking north towards the famous peaks of Jungfrau and Mönch at the glacier headwaters and the Aletschorn (4,195 meters/13,763 feet) right across from where I'm standing. The second photo is looking downstream towards the terminal. Almost all the area captured in my photos is covered in the UNESCO World Heritage site.

I did a really enjoyable hike/scramble to a rocky peak to eat a picnic lunch with one of the most amazing views I've ever experienced. The excellent interpretive display panels had pictures that clearly showed how this glacier has receded – a trend I would see repeated. Check out this great website where you can see for yourself the change in the Aletschgletscher (Aletsch Glacier) in just over one hundred years.

Back down and back on the road as I continued up the valley. A quick but interesting stop at a tiny village called Niederwald (only about 20 chalets), hometown of Cäsar Ritz (born 1850 – died 1918), founder of the luxury hotel chain. He and his wife were buried in the church cemetery that had interesting wooden carved tombstones.

Tomb markers, including the Ritz's, in Niederwald.

Reaching the town of Ulrichen I turned east and began the steady and steep climb up to the town of Gletsch and then up the switchbacks to Furka Pass.

The Furka Pass road.

I didn't go all the way to the summit but stopped at the large building, a hotel, on the left side of this photo. I parked here and paid my 5 Euro fee for an opportunity to be inside a glacier. The Rhonegletscher (Rhone Glacier) is located here. It is fascinating to visit for a number of reasons. Firstly, this is the source of one of Europe's great rivers. Secondly, every spring for the past 100 years the owners of the hotel have hired miners who dig a tunnel into the glacier and it becomes a major tourist attraction. Lastly, the Rhone is one of the most rapidly declining glaciers in the Alps. Check out this amazing website for an animated view of just how much it has retreated. Experts believe it will be completely gone by 2100.

The Rhöne Glacier. The tunnel is covered with plastic to stop the sun from melting off the roof, and dropping large chunks of ice on tourists.


The walk into the glacier was a little eerie. The deep blue color of the ice is startling. So too is how hard and dense the ice is. Glaciers are formed when massive accumulations of snow and ice occur at faster rates than they can melt. The combined weight of years of snow compact into rock-hard ice that gravity slowly takes off downhill. As I have experienced with my climbing, the movement of glacier is easy to see. The crevasses that form on the surface are a result of different parts of the ice sheet moving at different speeds. As a glacier moves it is grinding against the underlying bedrock. The creaking sound of a glacier is a little freaky when you are on their surface – it is downright scary when you are deep inside. Still, this was a fascinating experience.

Deep inside the Rhöne Glacier.

I carried on now crossing the Grimsel Pass and into the Bernese Oberland Canton. An overnight stay in a dorm room in a scummy hostel in Interlaken before heading the next day up to the town of Grindelwald. The Lonely Planet guidebook says: "If the Bernese Oberland is Switzerland's Alpine heart, the Jungfrau Region is where yours will skip a beat. The scenery stirs the soul and the epic beauty strains the neck muscles." I could not agree more. The top attraction is a train trip to the Jungfraujoch. Again, Lonely Planet provided helpful information is suggesting that: "Sure, everyone else wants to see it and yes, tickets are expensive, but don't let that stop you. It's a once-in-a-lifetime trip that you need to experience firsthand." They were not kidding when they said expensive – the train ticket was 162 Swiss Francs (that is $157 US Dollars, $169 Canadian Dollars, €107 Euro, £97 British Pounds, or $222 New Zealand Dollars). I think I have the currency of all my family and friends reading this covered.

One heck of an expensive train ticket.

The Jungfrau Railway is sometimes called the pioneer of all mountain railways. It climbs an amazingly steep grade from Grindelwald at 1,034 meters (3,393 feet) up to Kleine Schidegg where you change trains for the 7km long tunnel through the rock of the Eiger and Mönch to reach the highest train station at 3,454 meters (11,333 feet). The tunnel was opened in 1912 having taken 3,000 men some 16 years to drill.

Map showing route to "The Top of Europe".

On the way you pass beneath the Nordwand, the North Face of the Eiger. This is a legendary rock face and climb in mountaineering having first been climbed in 1938 (and the resulting book called The White Spider is a must read for any arm-chair alpinist). The train stops for five minutes at Eigerwand and Eismeer stations where windows have been cut into the rock providing an amazing view out.

The Nordwand, the North Face of the Eiger.

The train stops for five minutes at Eigerwand and Eismeer stations where windows have been cut into the rock providing an amazing view out.

On and up still in the tunnel before reaching the top where there is the Sphinx weather station, restaurants, and souvenir shops. But again, my guidebook had an excellent suggestion. It said if you cross the glacier (the top of the Aletsch Glacier) on a prepared path you can reach the Mönchsjochhütte (an alpine hut) where you can lunch with climbers psyching themselves up or recovering from tackling the Eiger or Mönch. I felt a bit silly walking along the prepared path in a T-shirt and running shoes as walked passed climbers in full gear. But it was worth it – check out these views.

On my way to hut – looking back at the Sphinx weather station. Note the tunnel bottom right where you access the glacier.

The view down the Aletsch Glacier, previously I'd been on the summit of the rock pyramid (just below my right shoulder). The bird is an Alpine Chough.

An easy walk back downhill passing lots of folks gasping for air trying to reach the hut (the signs said 45 minutes but I did it in 15 - guess all these days at altitude have paid off).  One of the other attractions (thankfully included in the price) is the "Ice Palace" – a series of tunnels and sculptures carved in the ice. Yes – the floors are slippery in case you are wondering.

Another day up high in the Alps – but this time it was an incredible train journey that got me there rather than hours of climbing. Even though I've never been to the Alps before there is a degree of familiarity to these peaks having spent years reading mountaineering books and climbing magazines. These really are magnificent mountains. It troubles me to see firsthand the rapid decline of glaciers – global warming is for real! It is also a little odd to experience these magic places with crowds of others (some 2 million people visit Jungfraujoch each year). But I will never tire of these incredible views and being in the realm of the mountain gods. So, the price of the train ticket was totally worth it! I left the glaciers and high snowy peaks making a somewhat rambling cross country way out of Switzerland. That story will be my next post.