Golden larches and bright autumn colors. The stark contrast to the deep blue that we will encounter on our excursion into the interior of a Swiss glacier cave. But as impressive as the scenery is, it also has a depressing effect on us. Because what we see here is quickly fading and will be history in a few years, perhaps even in a few months, and will never be reversed.
The Valais glaciers, like almost all other Alpine glaciers, are suffering from the massive global warming. Everywhere there is a more or less severe retreat - and at an increasing speed, which compared to the lifetime of a glacier must be called almost frantic.
We venture a glimpse into one of the huge ice caves formed by meltwater in spring. Although the glacier has almost completely melted in this area, a small icy remnant, covered in tons of rubble and debris, has survived. Especially in spring, when the snow melts, huge amounts of thundering water flow through the natural ice tunnel, forming a fragile and dangerous work of art over time. All around the edges are huge quantities of loose stones and boulders that can tumble down uncontrollably at any time (and regularly do, as we can see with our own eyes).
Join us on a short trip into the unfortunately not at all eternal ice and take in the impressive and icy cold scenery of this glacier cave in our #bildwelten format.
In the early morning of September 20, 2022, the entire ice cave collapsed completely during a light earthquake measured in the region of Mont Collon. An icy work of art is thus history, what remains for a few months are the debris of ice weighing tons, but most of which will certainly be gone by next summer. However, this fragile structure of ice would probably not have survived much longer anyway; the local glaciologists already expected a collapse caused by the high temperatures sooner or later.
We strongly advise against visiting the area of the former glacier cave on Bas Glacier d’Arolla!
On the one hand, there is still danger in parts of the former cave from collapsing ice walls as well as falling debris weighing tons. On the other hand, in the entire area below the north side of Mont Collon, there is a latent danger of glacier collapse similar to the event in the summer of 2022 on the Marmolata in Italy. The changes of the glacier on the summit of Mont Collon are therefore monitored and measured on a daily basis.
