Page 42 - DIVA_2_2022

International

Left page:
Moosfluh - the trek starts here
This page:
Approaching one big cave-entrace inside the glacier
Entrance to the cave of the glacier_Marjela side
What remained from the luxury hotel Belle Epoque -
Jungfrau Eggishorn

Climate change: Taking the Pulse of the icebergs in the nearby Märjelensee lake, but hours. I understood it would be challenging.

now the lake has become tiny and the glacier Only qualified guides may attempt it, and
Dying Glacier (part 3) has retreated. Nonetheless, I thought this may even for them it is not recommended. We
be a place to explore the natural caves. I also already walked for five hours, so it was unwise
saw photos showing what looked like a huge to add a challenging three more hours’ return
By Evelina Rioukhina entrance beneath the glacier – it can even be journey. I told him I would return especially
seen on google maps. Knowing that a trek like for that trip, and asked him to show me the
this can be challenging, I hired one of the best route as I could not see any possible approach,
What is there inside the Glacier? extremes, you can go for a walk on the ice to guides in the area to take me on a round trip at only warning signs. The guide explained that
It is the Glacier’s pulse beating. better feel it. It is possible, but only allowed the low level, as close as possible to the glacier. the approach path was different and showed
I wrote before about the Aletsch Glacier, with specially trained and licenced guides. We explored almost the whole area, seeing where. It only looked 75 meters away, but I
the biggest glacier in Europe and currently However, it is also possible to check the pulse incredible crevasses and landscapes, but after noticed tiny moving dots near to it. Realizing
endangered by climate change. Rereading from inside the Glacier, from its caves. Many hours of hiking I was puzzled and disappointed that this was a group of people on the ice, I
my work, however, I realized something was of these are artificial, and carved out every year when I realized that it is practically impossible realized how far away it really was and how
missing - actual ice! for tourists, but there are also natural caves. to get nearer to the Glacier itself. It is much huge the scale of the trek.
These are rare; there are just two or three in higher than it appears; the stones are steeper,
The ice of the glacier shows its health, and to all Switzerland, all in the Aletsch Glacier area. and polished by the Glacier’s movement. I When I talked with my colleagues later,
touch it is to symbolically feel its pulse and These natural caves are the most precious as could not see any caves, and it was impossible only one was willing to take the risk. We felt
see its actual state. The Glacier is not static; it they will show the Glacier’s exact state. to go further. privileged to have the opportunity to make
disappears and emerges, in its own way as alive the trek to the edge of Glacier, and to touch it,
as anything else in nature, and it is breathing Looking at the geography of the Aletsch So, I described to the guide what exactly I feel its pulse and its breath, and see if it would
too. Come with me to check its pulse, go Glacier and how it has retreated, you can was looking for. He warned me that the cave let us in to see its heart.
inside the Glacier to its heart and lungs and see the approach to the cave has become entrance was not as close as I had imagined: its
see what state it is in, how deeply it is affected tricky. However, there is an area between the apparent nearness is an optical illusion caused Our journey to the edge of Glacier
by climate change. mountains where the Glacier comes to the by the ice, and, furthermore, that it would be a (Fiescheralp-Aletsch edge-Fiescheralp)
First, how do we get inside the Glacier level of the high mountain valley. Old photos difficult and steep descent of over one and a half We knew this would be challenging, so we
and what is inside? Well, if you are fond of show that once huge chunks of it floated like

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