Zermatt's Glaciers and Climate Change
Suggestions for what to see
One day
* Take the railway to Gornergrat.
* See the most glaciers.
* See dramatic retreat features
like disconnected tributary
glaciers and lateral moraines
high above the ice.
* Enjoy lunch on a sunny terrace
with views of the Matterhorn.
Two days
* Take the railway to Gornergrat.
* Take the new 3S tri-cable gondola called the Matterhorn
glacier ride to Klein Matterhorn
and see the Upper Theodul
Glacier from over 600 feet
above its surface.
* Enjoy the 360 views from the
observation platform at
over 12,000 feet elevation.
* Walk inside a glacier.
More days
* Take the one day and two day
suggestions. If you do not want to hike, go to other lift stations
including Sunnegga, Blauherd,
Rothorn, and Schwarzsee.
* If you want to take a short
hike, take the lifts to Sunnegga
and Blauherd and enjoy a short
roundtrip hike on the trail (not the service road) to Stellisee and
Fluhalp Hut.
* If you have the time for longer
hikes, take any of the hikes
described in this guide.
Assume each hike will take a full
day or most of a day.
Map of the Zermatt Area Showing Glaciers and Lift Stations
Modified from a map available from Zermatt.ch
References and Websites
Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS), swissglaciers.glaciology.ethz.ch. (Contains all length measurements for the glaciers in Switzerland, including those in this guide.)
H. Holzhauser, M Magny, H. Zumbahl (2005) Glacier and lake level variations of west-central Europe over the last 3500 years, The Holocene, vol. 15, no. 6, pages 789-801.
O. Kronig, S. Ivy-Ochs, I. Hajdas, M. Christi, C. Wirsig, and C.Schluchter, C. (2017) Holocene evolution of the Triftje and the Oberseegletscher (Swiss Alps) constrained with 10Be exposure and radiocarbon dating, Swiss Journal of Geoscience, https://doi.org/10.1007/s0015-017-0288-x.
N. Molg, T. Bolch, A. Walter, A. Vieli (2019) The role of debris cover in the evolution of Zmuttgletcher, Switzerland, since the end of the Little Ice Age, The Cryosphere Discuss (under review).
M. Pelto (2017) Recent climate change impacts on mountain glaciers, John Wiley and Sons LTD. (Includes comparisons of satellite images of 165 glaciers in alpine regions of the world including Gorner, Findel, and Upper Theodul glaciers on pages 203-205.)
P. Rastner, P. Joerg, M. Huss, M. Zemp (2016) Historical analysis and visualization of the retreat of Findelen Gletscher, Switzerland, 1859-2010, Global and Planetary Change, 145, pages 67-77.
T. Stocker, et al, editors, Climate change 2013: The physical science basis, ICPP working group 1, contribution to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (ICPP), AR5, 2013. (ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/)
Zermatt.ch. (Zermatt's official website with maps and descriptions of hiking trails along with a full range of information about the resort.)
The web sites below give comparison photographs and some historical photographs over 100 years old that show significant retreat.
gletscherarchiv.de
Select: photo comparisons; glaciers in Switzerland; Valais, Switzerland or Matterhorn Switzerland.
This site shows the Findel, Gorner, Furgg, and Upper Theodul glaciers from 1900 to 2013.
GletscherVergleiche.ch or SwissGlaciers.org
Comparison photographs are organized alphabetically by glacier name. Findel, Furgg, and Gorner glaciers are shown.
wiki.org/wiki/Gorner
Historical photographs of Gorner and Grenz glaciers from 1890 and 1914 are shown.