Location: Bernese Alps [show in GoogleMaps]
length (1973): 9.05 km; length (2007): 8.77 km; orientation: southeast; surface area (1973): 22.81 km2. Oberaletschgletscher is easily overlooked due to its proximity to spectacular Grosser Aletschgletscher. However, it is an attractive glacier, and it is somewhat similar, but smaller, than Unteraargletscher. Note: Some of the images are very wide and may require scrolling to the right!
View from Oberaletschhütten (Swiss Alpine Club) towards the confluence of Oberaletschgletscher (right foreground) and Beichgletcher (right background); the tallest peak is the Nesthorn (3822m).
Well-developed glacier table on one of the medial moraines of Beichgletscher. Most of the debris transported by this glacier is light granite.
Beichgletscher carries some massive boulders, some even visible on topographic maps. This one is about 35 metres long! No glacier table is formed as the ice flows under the enormous weight of an estimated 15'000 tons.
The moraines of Oberaletschgletscher are particularly colourful as they contain a variety of igneous and metamorphic rocks. Mounds of debris are due to landslides.
Blocks with a remarkable reddish weathering crust on a medial moraine of Oberaletschgletscher. In the centre one block of lighter coloured quartz.
Perfectly shaped glacier table on a medial moraine of Oberaletschgletscher; behind the granite tower of Distelberg (centre) and the Aletschhorn (4193m, right).
Angular blocks of bright granite from the Aaremassiv on Oberaletschgletscher.
Beginning of a medial moraine; in the background Sattelhorn (3745m; centre), Kleines Aletschhorn (3750m) and Aletschhorn (4193m, right).
A crevasse has formed right under this glacier table, exposing deep blue ice.
Medial moraines on Beichgletscher; tele photo from Oberaletschhütten.
Variegated blocks of Migmatite on Oberaletschgletscher.
Access from Oberaletschhütte to the glacier is via long ladders.
The setting sun illuminates the debris-covered tongue, which has thinned a lot in recent years. The new access path to the hut is along the left margin of the image, high above the glacier surface.
A meltwater lake below Oberaletschhütten exposes some glacier ice and its structures. On the right is a deeply incised, meandering meltwater channel.
Debris-covered snout of Oberaletschgletscher and meltwater stream. On the right is the path, carved into the rock face, which allows animals to reach the alpine meadows of Inner Aletschi.
View down through the remarkable meltwater channel below the snout.
An evening view from Oberaletschhütten during unstable weather.
A steinbock surveying his territory late in the evening.
|Photos August 2006, Jürg Alean|