How the Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland is shrinking under climate change

by time news

Ahen the bus winds its way up from Brig to Fiesch, Amaya (20) and Ana Elisa (17) look wide-eyed at the landscape. Full of crass mountains here. The night before we had boarded the train in Hamburg. A start at three meters above sea level, now, in the early afternoon, we are at almost 2800 meters, the cable car has brought us to the Eggishorn. So far, the two of them have mostly gone to the sea, so this trip gives them a few firsts: they’ve never been to Switzerland, they’ve never been this high. And they’ve never seen a glacier. That’s why we’re here. I want to show my nieces a glacier while I still can.

At the Eggishorn vantage point, the Aletsch Glacier lies at our feet, the largest glacier in the Alps, a wide gray snake with two dark stripes on its back. The two are amazed, they had imagined it differently, more like a mountain with a lot of snow on it, “ice blue or white, but not that gray, and not something that flat”. The dimensions are difficult to make out from above, a local says there are rope teams going down there, but you can’t see them, you only see black dots. Rocks, gravel, people?

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