Rhône Glacier

Glacier · canton of Valais · 2200 m

Source of the Rhône, a spectacularly retreating glacier near the Furka Pass.

From the basket

At the end of the Goms valley, beneath the Furka, the Rhône Glacier gives birth to the river. From the balloon you see it come down from the Dammastock massif, from about three thousand six hundred metres: first a great white snowfield, then a tongue of ice flowing south between the Galenstock and the Gärstenhörner.

It is eight kilometres long. But it has retreated a great deal: in 1856, at its record advance, its tongue reached down to the valley floor, at Gletsch, almost in front of the hotel. The moraines and blocks left behind by the ice still trace, below, the glacier’s former extent.

Where the tongue used to end there is now a lake. Plants and animals have colonised the ground freed by the ice, and the road up to the Furka winds its hairpins above. For years, a tunnel was dug into the ice each summer so that visitors could walk inside.

Fly over the tongue of ice down to the lake, then let the wind take you down the Rhône valley, which starts here on its long road to the Mediterranean.

Did you know?

In the summer of 2020, to slow the melting, part of the glacier was covered with large white sheets. They reflect the sunlight and keep the ice cool, like a blanket laid over the mountain.

Sources: Wikipedia, “Glacier du Rhône” (in French).

All around

• Titlis, 3238 m, 20 km to the north
• Basodino, 3273 m, 21 km to the south
• Finsteraarhorn, 4274 m, 21 km to the west
• Wetterhorn, 3692 m, 21 km to the west