Watching: An Arctic Hike on the Great Aletsch Glacier

Overview

Exploration on the Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland. Starting from the station at Jungfraujoch we climb up toward the Glacier, which is 14 miles long and several miles wide and full of deep crevasses and reached only after some difficult climbing. In one place we look down and see a veritable sea of clouds one mile below us. Suddenly a storm swoops down upon us and here, high above a fertile sunny valley, we are caught in a mid-summer blizzard. Going on we climb down to the Marjelensee, the strangest lake in all Switzerland. It is surrounded on all sides by ice and is made of the melted ice water.