Zermatt's Glaciers and Climate Change
Schwarzsee
The gondola from the Furi lift station takes you to Schwarzsee. The view above shows the lift station on the left and on the right is the hotel and restaurant with a large terrace that faces the Matterhorn.
The empty valley of the Furgg Glacier is seen to the left from the Schwarzsee area. Its gray lateral moraines on both sides of the valley show the extent of the ice about 150 years ago. At that time the ice was about 300 feet above the Furgg lift station deep in the valley.
The Schwarzsee station, as well as the ride on the lift to the station, has the best views of the empty valley of the Gorner Glacier as seen to the right. About 150 years ago the glacier advanced beyond the left corner of this photograph and was close to the Furi lift station down the valley. Now its terminus is barely visible about two miles up the valley. Its lateral moraine is the gray rock in the center of the photograph on the valley wall that shows the height of the ice above the river.
Matterhorn Trail
The Matterhorn Trail begins at the Schwarzsee lift station and descends around the north face of the Matterhorn with views up the Zmutt Glacier's valley as shown in the top left photograph with the two hikers. The gray ridges of the lateral moraine tower over 200 feet above the glacier and show how much of the glacier's thickness has been lost to melting. The bottom part of the photograph below the waterfall gives a view of the vegetated terminal moraine that marks the maximum length of the glacier around 1859. You can also hike to and along the dramatic waterfall cascading from the end of the lateral moraine. Along the trail you can either go to the terminus of the Zmutt Glacier or hike directly to Stafel and Zmutt. You can also see the many collapse areas in the ice, ice cliffs, and meltwater lakes in the photographs above. The last photograph shows an ice cliff, meltwater lake, and the rock debris covering the glaciers ice.