Frans & I headed out yesterday for a guided hike on the Morteratch Glacier in Switzerland. Over 5 hours, we hiked down onto the glacier, across to an island of rock (once covered by the glacier not long ago), across the other side of the glacier, and back down to its end.
Our Swiss German guide, with that characteristic "survival of the fittest" approach characteristic in Northern Europe warned, "If the person in front of you falls into a crevasse, don't step there." The tour was all in German (a language neither Frans nor I have studied). However, German is close enough to Dutch that we followed a bit. We learned all kinds of fun facts like how to use a glacier table (a big boulder on top of a pile of snow around which everything has melted) like a compass. Similarly, the glacier has many mini-pools that similarly can guide you North South East and West as needed based on their shape. The sheer mass of the glacier was amazing, but one could see where the glacier once flowed (slowly), one hundred meters or more above our head, ending 2 km further than it now does. I hope something is left when Frans and Rose have kids old enough to hike on a glacier...
 |
| Frans before start of glacier walk with Morteratch in background. |
 |
| View upward at Morteratch Glacier from below (on glacier) |
 |
| Walking on the glacier |
I am glad you are learning something and not just having fun! Beautiful!!!
ReplyDelete