Glacier Hiking
The unusual feature of this otherwise standard view of the Aletsch Glacier from the Jungfraujoch are the six small figures in the lower-centre foreground. This is a party of thrill seekers returning from camping out overnight on the glacier somewhere beyond the section of crevasses just to the right of centre of shot. They give a great sense of scale to the scenery...
The Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the European Alps. It has a length of about 23 km and covers more than 120 square kilometres in the eastern Bernese Alps in the Swiss canton of Valais. The glacier is composed of three smaller glaciers converging at Concordia, where its thickness is estimated to be near 1,000m. It then continues towards the Rhone valley before giving birth to the Massa River.
This view looks down the Jungfraufirn. This firn in fact represents the straight continuation of the Aletsch Glacier, yet is the shortest of the three tributary glaciers. It has its origin on the southern flank of the Mönch, at the Jungfraujoch and at the eastern flank of the Jungfrau (just behind me to the right in this view). Down to the convergence point at Concordia, the Jungfraufirn is a scarce 7 km long. At its highest point, it is 2 km wide, and further down, between the two sides visible in the distance it is still over a kilometre wide.
The whole area, including other glaciers is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch Protected Area, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001.
Scanned from a negative.
Glacier Hiking
The unusual feature of this otherwise standard view of the Aletsch Glacier from the Jungfraujoch are the six small figures in the lower-centre foreground. This is a party of thrill seekers returning from camping out overnight on the glacier somewhere beyond the section of crevasses just to the right of centre of shot. They give a great sense of scale to the scenery...
The Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the European Alps. It has a length of about 23 km and covers more than 120 square kilometres in the eastern Bernese Alps in the Swiss canton of Valais. The glacier is composed of three smaller glaciers converging at Concordia, where its thickness is estimated to be near 1,000m. It then continues towards the Rhone valley before giving birth to the Massa River.
This view looks down the Jungfraufirn. This firn in fact represents the straight continuation of the Aletsch Glacier, yet is the shortest of the three tributary glaciers. It has its origin on the southern flank of the Mönch, at the Jungfraujoch and at the eastern flank of the Jungfrau (just behind me to the right in this view). Down to the convergence point at Concordia, the Jungfraufirn is a scarce 7 km long. At its highest point, it is 2 km wide, and further down, between the two sides visible in the distance it is still over a kilometre wide.
The whole area, including other glaciers is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch Protected Area, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001.
Scanned from a negative.