A Quick Visit to the Rhone Glacier

The Rhône River, France's second longest River and one of the most significant waterways in Europe, has its source at a Glacier near the Furka Pass in the Canton of Valais in Switzerland. The river flows down the Goms Valley from where it eventually travels to Lake Geneva and on to the Camargue Region of France where it empties into the Mediterranean.

Our hike this day (July 30) started at the Furka Pass and followed the Rhône River through this first portion with a plan to end at Oberwald in the Goms Valley. But first we wanted to see the Rhône Glacier (Switzerland's 5th largest glacier by volume), which I had seen the first time 28 years ago (1988). At that time it was so large it hung over the cliff, and from our vantage point at the Hotel Belvedere we had looked directly onto a huge wall of ice.

In the meantime the glacier has shrunk so massively that you can no longer see it from the hotel, but have to walk about 10 minutes beyond the hotel. Now there is only a huge basin with a glacier lake at the tip of the glacier tongue. You can see where the ice used to fill this basin, and it is phenomenal to think about how this massive wall of ice has shrunk over the years (25m per year in recent years...Predictions are that the glacier will have totally disappeared by the year 2100)

Every year a 100m-long ice grotto gets carved into the glacier here, so you can experience the inside of the glacier, but they have to continually maintain it as the glacier moves 10cm per day here. By the end of the summer, the grotto has shrunk by 30m, and each year they have to carve the grotto further up. They do try to prevent shrinkage by covering the glacier with a huge plastic sheet. 

This view is back along the Urschener Valley, as we ascend the Furka Pass Road by bus.

As we travel by bus along the Urschener Valley, up ahead is the Furka Pass Road that leads to the Rhone Glacier.

Furka Pass Road heading to the Rhone Glacier. Below is the original railroad, and top left is the Pass.

As we approach the Hotel Belvedere (1882) there is nothing left of the glacier in the basin. 28 years ago this was full of ice.

Comparing a photo I took in 1988 from the Hotel Belvedere, and now in 2016.

To reach the glacier tongue (at the right, in the back) you have to walk 10 minutes (and pay $10). 

Heading to the Rhone Glacier early in the morning.

This basin used to be full of ice up to the moraine line and not that long ago (50 years or less).

Imagine the glacier filling this basin and flowing over on the left.

At the place where they carve out the ice grotto, they try to prevent some melting by covering the glacier with a plastic sheet (prevents about 50% shrinkage)

Look, I am standing on the tongue of the Rhone Glacier!

In the Ice Grotto. It was definitely cold!

In the 100m-long Ice Grotto. The ice moves at 10cm per day here.

Heading back up to the Belvedere Hotel to catch a bus back to the Furka Pass, from where our hike begins.

This is the Goms Valley with the Rhone River which is flowing out of the Glacier. Our hike for the day is from the left and down this valley. 

A postcard I purchased here in 1988 shows how large the glacier was and how far down the slope it reached.