Zermatt's Glaciers and Climate Change
Rothorn
Rothorn Lift Station
The photograph to the right is the Rothorn lift station and one of its cable cars rising from the Blauherd lift station. The station's elevation of 10,178 feet offers expansive views of all the highest peaks, glaciers, and Zermatt far down in the valley. The Findel Glacier is shown above from the lift station area. From this high vantage point, you can see the high source of ice that supplies the remaining valley part of the glacier. You can also get a perspective on its extensive empty valley and the lateral moraine ridges that show how much length, width, and thickness of ice has melted in the last 150 years.
Trail from the Rothorn Station to the Fluhalp Hut
and the Moraine Ridge Trail
This trail begins in back of the restaurant at the Rothorn Station and follows a ski trail down to the Fluhalp Hut, a mountain restaurant and hotel shown above.
The photograph to the right is a view of the multiple lateral moraines of the Findel Glacier that shows repeated advances of the glacier in the past. From the Fluhalp Hut you can climb up the moraine on many small trails and hike down the Moraine Ridge Trail.
The above view from the Moraine Ridge Trail shows the terminus of the Findel Glacier and the sediment left behind as it retreated. The gray ridge to the left and above the glacier is its lateral moraine. The top of the ridge is the past ice level. When compared to today's ice level you can see how much ice thickness has been lost.
The Moraine Ridge Trail along the top of the highest moraine also can be seen in the above four photographs. The above view shows four hikers on the trail with enormous gullies possibly formed as a past glacier melted. Younger multiple moraines can be seen below the highest moraine ridge in the second and third views above. The lowest moraine consists of very large boulders, some larger than cars, that may have come from a rock slide up the valley onto the glacier's surface. Later they were carried by the glacier until it melted and deposited them in their present location. These multiple moraines show past advance and retreat cycles of the glacier in response to past climate changes.