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The glaciers of the Swiss Valais: A temporary farewell?

In search of the stories of the glaciers, our author Nadine travelled to the Swiss Canton of ValaisTogether with Switzerland Tourism, she spent four days not only learning about the regions and their glaciers, but also experiencing first-hand what it means when nature decides on the program.

snowshoe tour on the glacier

Off to Valais

At the beginning of January I went to Wallis, the region of Switzerland famous for its majestic ice giants. The aim was to visit the Feegletscher in Saas-Fee and Aletsch Glacier to explore. But the plan went differently than expected: The planned snowshoe tour, which was supposed to have given us a first glimpse of the Fee Glacier, fell victim to heavy snowfall and thick clouds. The tour with a view of the largest glacier in the Alps, the Aletsch Glacier, also had to be shortened due to bad weather. Visibility: limited. It was not until the last day of our trip that things changed and what we saw was more than breathtaking. In the end, however, it was not the impressive panorama that made the biggest impression, but the stories surrounding it, as well as the changeable conditions to which we had to adapt, and which showed us that nature still has the upper hand.

In the snow

contemporary witnesses of climate change

Glaciers are more than impressive natural phenomena, they are also sensitive indicators of climate change. However, they do not react immediately to current weather phenomena. "A large glacier has a reaction time of 30 years or more," our mountain guide Martin NellenThis means that today's ice losses are the result of warming that began decades ago. Small glaciers, on the other hand, react more quickly and often shrink dramatically within a few years.

The figures are alarming: In the Alps, Glaciers have lost almost half their mass since 1850. Studies predict that many Alpine glaciers could have disappeared by the end of the 21st century, global warming should continue unabated. The rate of melting has accelerated considerably in recent decades. Global warming, caused by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, has led to some of these dramatic changes. And the consequences are noticeable - not only for the glaciers, but also for the people and ecosystems that depend on them.

Aletsch Glacier
Bergführer_Martin_Nellen

“We are just a small bubble in this big structure”

Martin Nellen, who has been a mountain guide for almost half a century, has experienced the changes in the mountains and especially on the Aletsch Glacier first hand. "In summer, we see the melting from month to month, from week to week," he reported. The retreat of the Aletsch Glacier has had a major impact on his work: some tours that were previously possible without any problems are now no longer safe due to rockfalls and unstable ground. The loss of the permafrost that holds the rock together is exacerbating these dangers. Martin also feels a personal connection to the glaciers. "Of course, I suffer with my friend, the glacier," he said. The retreat of the ice also forces him to take increasingly longer routes to reach the remaining ice fields.

Martin ultimately faces the situation with a mixture of resignation and pragmatic realism. "We humans overestimate ourselves enormously," he said. "The last great ice age was more than 20.000 years ago. We now know that there have been over 20 ice ages. So we are just a small bubble in this large structure."

Snowshoe tour
In Valais

Humans as a turning point: A new era of climate change?

Martin's words resonate with me. It is somehow a comforting idea that nature has its cycles, completely independent of us. But isn't this time different compared to previous developments? It is true that the Earth has experienced several ice ages in its history - the oldest over 2 billion years ago, the most recent, the so-called "Little Ice Age", lasted until the 19th century. These changes were natural reactions to variations in the Earth's orbit, tectonic shifts, volcanic activity and fluctuations in solar radiation. But what is happening now is new.

For the first time in Earth's history, humans themselves are a decisive factor influencing the climate. The current global warming is occurring at a speed that no natural cycles can explain. According to the IPCC it is “extremely likely” that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause of global warming over the past 70 years.

A future ice age is likely to come at some point – the Earth’s cycles are long-term and outlast human civilizations. But even if the Earth wanted to naturally return to a cooling trend, our emissions have delayed that process for a long time. Studies claim that the man-made CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere could delay the next ice age by at least 100.000 years

 

A power struggle between man and nature

This makes our role unprecedented: for the first time, a species is influencing the global climate to a degree that overrides geological processes. This realization may be worrying, but it also presents an opportunity: if we are capable of bringing about such profound changes, then it is also within our power to take responsibility and limit the impact of our actions. We may not be able to undo the past - but we can work for the future - for ourselves, for future generations and for the fascinating, ephemeral world of glaciers.

Viewpoint_Bettmerhorn

In the Face of the Glacier: Wonder and Reflection

After two days of not seeing either the Feegletscher or the Aletschgletscher, there was a ray of hope on the last day of the trip. At 2869 metres, on Viewpoint of the Eggishorn, in brilliant sunshine we not only had a view of 40 four-thousand-meter peaks, but also of the Aletsch Glacier, the largest and most impressive ice stream in the Alps. Located in the middle of the Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is a natural wonder with a length of around 20 kilometers and an area of ​​almost 80 square kilometers. The wind blew around my nose, the snow crystals glittered in the sun. With a cold nose, I tried to absorb everything the glacier was offering me at that moment up there at an altitude of almost 3000 meters. The sight of it triggered mixed feelings in me: amazement at its sheer size and beauty, but also the realization of how fragile it has become.

The glaciers of Valais teach us more than just about climate change. They tell us not only about the transience of nature, but also about our own responsibility, which sees us not just as observers but as actors in a global system. Perhaps the most important question in the end is not whether we can save nature, but whether we can change our way of life so that we live in harmony with the earth and become part of a future that not only survives but thrives.

view_glacier

Another exciting article on the topic of snow:

“WHAT YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT SNOW”

Places for beautiful moments in the snow

Photos: Nadine Pinezits

Nadine is a freelance editor and copywriter. She lives in Austria and commutes between Salzburg and Vienna. This means she is either in the mountains or in the urban jungle, but at the same time tries to spend as much time as possible in her beloved country, Portugal.

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