Aletsch Glacier

A bright white, subtly crevassed snow covered glacier occupies the bottom 1/5th of the frame. Beyond it stretches an enormous valley formed of rocky, dark grey and light brown mountains bordering the ribbon of crusty white and grey glacier ice that stretches off into the distance. A wavy darker line runs almost parallel to the border of the ribbon on either side, seeming to grow closer together as the perspective shifts with distance. The two valley sides and a pyramidal mountain converge on a point just off center of the frame where the glacier then disappears from view behind the mountains to the right. The pyramidal shaped mountain at the end of the visible section of glacier has a barely visible small building near it's summit. The sky is a pale blue, with two fluffy clouds sat above a backdrop of a hazy mountain range that almost forms a smiley face with the shape of the ridge line. There are a scattering of lower level fluffy white clouds closer in altitude to the summits of these mountains in the far distance, but none are occluding the summits.

The crevassed glacier in the immediate foreground is Jungfraufirn, with Strahlhorn forming the left valley side and Eggishorn sat at the end of the visible portion of glacier. Near it's summit is the barely visible cable car station. Jungfraufirn is joined by Ewigschneefäld, Grosse Aletschfirn, and Grüneggfirn to form the Aletsch Glacier. While it is both the largest and longest glacier in the Alps; it is, like most others in the world, a retreating glacier as a result of anthropogenic (i.e human caused) climate change.

Shot at the Sphinx Observatory platform at Jungfraujoch, this scene also forms the very soft background of "Alpine Chough at Jungfraujoch".

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Date: 2025-08-26
Camera: X-H2
Lens: SIGMA 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN | Contemporary 021
Focal length: 50 mm (75 mm equiv.)
Aperture: f/18
Shutter: 1/125 s
ISO: 125
Exposure compensation: 0 EV
Tags: Landscapes, Mountains, Switzerland