Why the Rhone Glacier is the best place to visit in Switzerland
That Rhone Glacier in Switzerland is one of the most beautiful and easily accessible glaciers in the Swiss Alps. The famous glacier has been easily accessible since today’s Furka Pass was opened around 150 years ago. It’s a glacier with a memorable Victorian/James Bond hotel and an ice tunnel, and it’s a glacier that tells the unfortunate tale of global glacial retreat.
Renowned for its picturesque scenery, the Swiss Alps boast some of the most dramatic alpine scenery in Europe. Switzerland is famous for its alpine railways, and one of the highest places in the world to reach by train is the “Top of Europe” in Switzerland. The highest that can be reached by cable car is Klein Matterhorn at 12,700 feet. If you can afford Switzerland, it’s a land of countless alpine adventures.
Rhone Glacier – Europe’s easiest to reach glacier
The Rhone Glacier can be reached via the nearby Furka Pass road – the narrow curves of the pass make it one of the most beautiful roads in Switzerland. Nowhere else in Europe is access to a glacier so easy. Here you can just drive to the glacier, park your car and admire the glacier up close (if there is a parking lot nearby).
- Location: Swiss canton Valais
- Street: Furka Pass road
- Coffee shop: There is a cafe on site
Located in the stunning Goms Valley, the Rhone Glacier is the source of the Rhone.
The old Victorian hotel built for the glacier may have closed, but there is a café in the parking lot for glacier visitors. Just up the street is the Furkablick restaurant.
There, visitors are rewarded with a panoramic glacier viewing platform. Soon there will be a new glacial lake platform because when the glacier melts a new lake forms at the end of the glacier.
Visit the ice grotto tunnel in the glacier
One of the most famous attractions of the glacier since Victorian times is the ice grotto. It is a tunnel that has been carved into the glacier since 1870.
- First carved: 1870
- Height: 2,300 meters above sea level
- Duration: About 30 minutes
- Length: 70-100 meters
The grotto is re-hewn into the ice every year. When the tunnel is carved it is about 100 meters long, but the glacier moves and melts throughout the season, so by the end of the season the tunnel is only about 70 meters long.
- Opening hours: 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m
- Admission fee: 9 CHF ($9.50)
It takes about 30 minutes to tour the ice grotto, and visitors can tour it on their own without a guide. It is an otherworldly experience to walk through a tunnel and an ice chamber in an ice river. It is a unique experience to be inside a glacier and admire the subtle shades of blue from within (even if the glacier looks white-grey from the outside).
Because the glacier is constantly moving, so is the tunnel that is pre-drilled each year. The glacier moves about 30-40 meters every year. It’s a good idea to have closed shoes and warm clothing while walking through the grotto.
The Rhone Glacier is retreating
The Rhone Glacier has been a tourist attraction since the 19th century. The eye-catching Belvedere Hotel was built right on the glacier’s doorstep in an 1880s hotel when it was set to star in a James Bond film. When Sean Connery was shooting the James Bond film Goldfinger, the hotel was still in its fall swing and the glacier hadn’t retreated that far. But since then the glacier has retreated and the hotel has closed.
- Withdrawn: About 1.2 miles up the mountain
Since the Victoria-era hotel was built for tourists wanting to admire the glacier, it has retreated some 2 kilometers or 1.2 miles up the mountain.
Today, remains of gray scree and boulders are a reminder of where the mighty glacier once flowed. The Rhone Glacier is not alone; Over 500 Swiss glaciers have disappeared and 90% of the remaining 1500 threaten to follow by the end of the century.
The Rhone Glacier has been in retreat for many years and authorities are scrambling to stem the worst of the melt. Special blankets are placed on the glacier to slow melting during hot spells.