Moosfluh viewpoint
Over the ice.
Giles Laurent — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Leonhard Lenz — CC0 · FkMohr — CC BY-SA 3.0 de · Gzzz — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Christoph Strässler — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the Alps, flowing through the Bernese Alps in the canton of Valais, southern Switzerland. The Moosfluh viewpoint above it lies about 10 km northeast of Brig and 35 km south of Interlaken in a straight line. It is about 23 km long, formed where four smaller glaciers meet at Konkordiaplatz, where the ice has been measured at 905 metres thick. The whole area belongs to the Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed in 2001. Like most glaciers it is retreating, and it has lost about 3.2 km of its length since 1870. From the viewpoints the glacier looks like a wide road of white and grey ice curving between towering peaks, striped with dark lines of moraine. On the slopes opposite grows the Aletsch Forest of old pines, and summits above 4,000 metres line the horizon. Visitors take cable cars from villages in the Rhône valley up to the car-free resorts of Riederalp, Bettmeralp and Fiescheralp, then continue to the viewpoints at Moosfluh, Bettmerhorn or Eggishorn. Trails along the edge of the ice need good boots, and walking on the glacier itself is only for guided groups.
Over the ice.
Old pines.
Riederalp and Bettmeralp.
Aletsch Arena, above the Rhône valley, Canton of Valais, Switzerland
By cable car from the Rhône valley to Riederalp or Bettmeralp, then up to the top.
Only with a guide.