Ice front
A grey tongue.
NOTE: This image is a panorama of Diavolezza consisting of 11 frames that were merged or stitched in Panorama Studio. As a result, this image necessarily underwent some form of digital manipulation. T — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Giorgio Galeotti — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Feel free to use my photos, but please mention me as the author and if you want send me a message. or (rufre@lenz-nenning.at) — CC BY-SA 3.0 at · Leonhard Lenz — CC0 · Feel free to use my photos, but please mention me as the author and if you want send me a message. or (rufre@lenz-nenning.at) — CC BY-SA 3.0 at
The Morteratsch is the largest glacier by area in the Bernina Range of eastern Switzerland, in the Val Morteratsch near Pontresina, about 12 km southeast of St. Moritz in a straight line. By area and volume, estimated at about 1.2 cubic kilometres of ice, it is the third-largest glacier in the Eastern Alps. It is a typical valley glacier with a pronounced ice front, gathering its snow between Piz Bernina, Piz Morteratsch and Bellavista. Its horizontal extent is under six kilometres, with a height difference of up to 2,000 metres. A grey-white tongue of ice descends between the towering snowy Bernina peaks, and a milky white stream runs from its front between heaps of rock and gravel. Larch forests line both sides of the valley, and the old limits the ice once reached are clearly visible on the slopes. Visitors walk from Morteratsch railway station on a fairly easy path towards the ice front, with signs along the way marking where the ice reached in past years. The glacier can be seen from above at Diavolezza, and walking on the ice is dangerous without a guide.
A grey tongue.
Where the ice once was.
A view from above.
Val Morteratsch, near Pontresina, Graubünden, Switzerland
Only with a guide.
By train to Morteratsch station.