Aletsch Glacier "UNESCO RIDGEWAY" between Bettmerhorn and Eggishorn

(This post publisched on November 12th, 2024)

Monday August 18, 2014 -- Day 4 of our vacation week in Canton Valais: 

We also made sure the forecast was for great weather for this, my first visit to the largest glacier in the Alps. The Aletsch Glacier is the center of the Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the path we chose (along the crest from Mount Bettmerhorn to Mount Eggishorn instead of around them lower down) is known as the UNESCO RIDGEWAY. Not my favourite hike (three hours of climbing over rocks and making sure you don’t lose your footing) but the 360-degree views made it worth it. But after this hike, I didn't want to see another rock! (This hike is rated blue/white for experienced alpine hikers, but I was surprised at how many inexperienced hikers, who looked like tourists with inadequate footwear, were attempting this hike!)

We had started with the cablecar ride up to Bettmeralp, the center village of three resort villages on the large alpine plateau here, then a gondola ride to the Bettmerhorn restaurant. 4½ hours later we reached the summit of Mt. Eggishorn, and descended from there via Fiescheralp to Fiesch town on valley bottom. Since we still had plenty of daylight we then went to ride the third set of cablecars to the third resort village of Riederalp, before heading to our vacation rental for the night.

Here some fascinating facts about this natural wonder: It is 24 kilometers long and covers approximately 82 square kms; at the thickest part (Concordia Place) it is 900 m deep and the ice flows at 200 m per year; in summer the glacier loses 20 cm of height per day, and 60,000 litres of water PER SECOND flow out of the end of the glacier. Also, the fact that it moves slower at the base and sides (friction) creates the build-up of the hills and crags.

Base station of the Bettmeralp cable-way, which takes you 1100 meters up the mountain to the resort village of Bettmeralp. 

From the summit station of the Bettmeralp cablecar, you have to walk a little over one kilometer to the Bettmerhorn gondola cableway. 

Another ride with the Bettmeralp/Bettmerhorn cableway takes us up to the Bettmerhorn restaurant and viewing platform from where we are starting our hike. 

Gondola ride from Bettmeralp to the Bettmerhorn summit station. A fantastic view across the Bettmer Lake, all the way to Mount Weisshorn in the far back and even the Matterhorn right in the center of the photo!

Approaching the Bettmerhorn summit station. The pile of rocks behind the building is what we are planning to climb this day!

Bettmerhorn restaurant. There is an ice museum here, and it is also where we are starting our hike. 

First a five-minute detour to the viewpoint called "Gletscherblick", or Glacier View, to get our first look at the Aletsch Glacier. 

What a fantastic view! This is the largest glacier in the Alps, a total of 24 kilometers in length!

As seen on Google Satellite Maps, this is the hike we did from the Bettmerhorn hotel over the Ridge Trail to the summit of Mt. Eggishorn. 

The pile of rocks we have to climb! The first goal is the cross at the top. 

And now the start of the hike, which consists first of a steep set of stairs. Not difficult with the cable handholds! We started here at 10:30.

Looking from above at the Bettmerhorn restaurant and ice museum, and the resort village of Bettmeralp below. You can see the Matterhorn at the far back!

The first climb to the cross has been successful! This is at 2858 meters above sea level, and not even the highest part of our hike!

This is the top of the world!

A glorious day for this most fantastic view!

It was not an easy hike! We had to test every rock we stepped on, to make sure it wasn't loose. 

Lots of rocks to climb over!

The trail is rated Blue/White for experienced alpine hikers!

Looking down onto both sides of the ridge is pretty cool!

Difficult passages have cable handholds for safety

A zoomed look at the magnificent Matterhorn!

At this point we've already come a nice long way along the ridge.

A look behind us at a section which we descended!

This part was fun!

Looking forward to this section of the hike being finished! Further ahead, there seems to be a normal trail past here!

A good look down at the Fiescher Alp and the most northerly of the three resort villages up here: Fiescheralp. We can also see all the way to the valley bottom here, and into the Binn Valley where we walked the next day.

About 2½ hours after starting this climb, we finally got off the first pile of rocks, and had a better rock-free trail to walk on. The trail now passed a low point (Elselücke) and then zigzags up to the summit station of the Fiescheralp/Eggishorn cable-way and to the summit of Mount Eggishorn.

Another fabulous view of the Aletsch Glacier

From this side, it should take about three hours to cross the ridge to the Bettmerhorn cablecar. But with careful walking, it does take longer. There were a lot of people up here on this beautiful day. 

A good place for a well-deserved break! Behind us we can now see another glacier in a different valley to the north. This one is called the Fiescher Glacier. 

After reaching the summit station, we continued on the crest trail to head up Mt. Eggishorn. This is a look back at the Bettmerhorn massif which we crossed! (Summit station of the Eggishorn cable-way on the left). 

Panorama view of the entire Aletsch Glacier (24 kms!) from the summit of Mt. Eggishorn, which we reached at about 3:00 p.m.

And on the north side of Mt. Eggishorn we look down at the dammed lake Märjelensee (there is a single building down there next to the lake, a hostel and mountain restaurant called Gletscherstube), and further north is the Fiescher Glacier. 

At this point on Mt. Eggishorn, I had had enough of climbing over boulders, so Urs continued alone to a look-out point where he could see over the central and deepest part of the glacier, Concordia Place, where the ice is almost one kilometer deep!

This is the view Urs had over the Aletsch Glacier, Concordia Place, where three glaciers converge over almost one kilometer depth of ice! The mountain on the far left is Mt.Jungfrau and the saddle to its right is the Jungfraujoch and next to that is Mt. Mönch, seen from the less common side. (Most people see these mountains from the Lauterbrunnen Valley on the other side). 

A close-up look at the surface of this humungous glacier. The hills and crags are created by friction caused by a more rapid movement of the ice on the surface than on the sides and base of the glacier. 

Heading down from the Eggishorn summit station to Fiescheralp, with a final look at Mount Bettmerhorn. We crossed that entire crest!!!

The large-cabin cablecar from Fiescheralp to Fiesch town in the valley below. 

As the day was still "young", once we got back down to valley bottom in the town of Fiesch, we took the train back to Mörel along the line further to the west (past the Bettmeralp valley station) and took the gondola cable-way to another of the resort villages on this upper plateau called Riederalp, to the summit station called Riederalp West. From there we walked through the village to the other cablecar station at Riederalp Mitte, where we took the large-cabin cableway back down to the valley bottom and returned to our rental home for the night.

Gondola cable-car from Mörel to Riederalp. We rode up here at 4:40 p.m., as there was still enough daylight. 

From Riederalp we can see the gondola cable-way which we took to the Bettmerhorn restaurant from Bettmeralp village earlier in the day! And a really good look at how steep the climb to the ridge was!

Walking through the mountain resort village of Riederalp to the other cableway in the center of the village. We sauntered around here for a little over an hour, enjoying the rest of the sunny late afternoon. 

Close-up view to the mountains in the south-east. 

Riding the larger cabin cablecar back down to valley bottom at 6:10 p.m.!

The Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the Alps and is the result of three "fins" flowing together.