Into the fascinating world of the Oberaletsch Glacier

Our visit to the Oberaletsch Glacier (also Upper Aletsch Glacier), the smaller sibling of the Alps’ biggest glacier, the Aletschgletscher (aka ‘Grosse Aletschgletscher’ – Greater Aletsch Glacier), I can only describe as: Fascinating! Amazing! Wow!

I’ve always had a fascination with glaciers. These beautiful living masses of ice. And a lot of respect for the potential danger that they hold for mountaineers! With their big hidden crevasses that could open up unexpectedly and swallow you.

My first experience on glaciers was in the Dolomites. Various smaller ones around the Sorapiss and Civetta area, mostly small ice fields, remnants of once-mighty glaciers… And then there is the glacier on Marmolada that you cross on your way to or from Punta Pena, the highest peak in the Dolomites. To safely descend the Marmolada Glacier (Italian: Ghiacciaio della Marmolada) you follow a zigzag path while navigating your way through the multiple crevasses. Knowing how deep the glacier is (Austrian forces dug an underground city under the ice during WW1), I rope up on this one! Then there are the large glaciers that we had to climb to get to the summit of Margherita Peak on Mount Stanley in Uganda. The Elena Glacier at about the 4500 m level – the largest ice field in Africa, and the even higher Margherita Glacier that finishes a short distance below the rock tower that is the summit of Africa’s 3rd highest mountain. These are hanging glaciers. Meaning they tend to originate in a cirque and descend downward over the mountain without reaching the valleys below.

Our trip this weekend took us to the Oberaletsch Glacier. A valley glacier, which during the Little Ice Age joined up with the 23 km long Aletsch Glacier (the largest glacier in the Alps). We spent the night in the delightful Oberaletschhütte (2640 m). Our host Irene helped to make this one of the nicest huts we’ve been to and one we’ll definitely want to visit again! The walk to the hut takes nearly 5 hours, during which you gain about 900 m. The path used to follow a route on the glacier, but the retreat of the glacier had made it unsafe to walk along what became moraine. They made an alternative path which in places looks almost as if they have paved it, following a much higher route above the valley with panoramic views across the glacier.

The Oberaletsch Glacier is the sixth largest glacier in the Alps with a length of about 9 km and width of 1 km, covering nearly 22 square kilometres. Comprising two arms, the eastern one starts at the Aletschhorn at a height of about 3700 m. It joins the western arm, the Beich Glacier (Beichgletscher), in the valley below the Nesthorn. From here the glacier flows down the valley towards the Aletsch Glacier, ending rather abruptly at about 2150 m, where the meltwater that had been flowing mostly underground thunders down a massive waterfall.

Barbara and I climbed 200 metres down to the valley floor on Sunday morning to explore this fascinating glacier. While the glacier tongue is visible in places on the valley floor, most of it now comprises moraine. An ageless collection of rocks in all shapes, sizes and colours, dragged from somewhere by the slow steady movement of the glacier and left exposed when the glacier itself retreated.

When you stand amongst this rubble on the floor of the valley with the walls of the valley which was once covered in glacial ice towering above you and you realize that this was shaped over thousands if not millions of years you come to understand just how insignificant our very short lifespan really is…

The making of the Oberaletsch Glacier

Glaciers, like the Oberaletsch Glacier, form when the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation. This takes place over a long period – often centuries. The movement of glaciers creates crevasses, seracs, and other distinguishing features. The rock and debris from their substrate also create landforms such as moraines.

To explain all the scientific details about glaciers would take up many pages. Wikipedia has a great article with loads of information on glaciers. Here are a few interesting facts about glaciers:

• Glaciers cover about 10% of Earth’s land surface.
• Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of freshwater on Earth.
• Nearly 70 percent of the world’s freshwater is stored in glaciers.
• The “Little Ice Age” took place between about the 14th and 19th centuries – a period during which glaciers advanced. At the peak of the last ice age, glaciers covered approximately 32 percent of the land area.
• Sea levels would rise about 70 meters if all land ice melted…
• The Bering Glacier in Alaska, the largest glacier in North America, is 190 km long!
• The 400 km long and 85 km wide Lambert Glacier in Antarctica is the largest glacier in the world.
• Pakistan has more glacial ice than any other country outside the polar regions.

A funny thing happened on the way…

I had to visit the toilet while on the train… as I reached for the paper; I came to realize that there was only one sheet camouflaging what should have been an entire roll of paper! O, dear! The only option was to use the little basin recessed into the wall, with hardly enough space to wash your hands, to clean what had to be cleaned… which reminded me of a trip to the Atlas Mountains many years ago. The toilet at our first overnight stop was a hole in the floor. When I looked for the toilet paper, there was none! Panic! Then I spotted the bucket of water and a little jug hanging from it. And so my education continued… ever since this day I’ve carried my toilet kit with me whenever I visit the mountains. Needless to say that the kit was in my backpack when I visited the toilet on the train… ah, well…