Key facts
- Type
- Valley glacier
- Location
- Furka Pass , Valais , Switzerland
- Area
- 17.60 km (6.80 sq mi) (1973)
- Length
- 9.09 km (5.65 mi) (1879), 8.00 km (4.97 mi) (1973), 7.65 km (4.75 mi) (2016)
- Highest elevation
- 3,630 m (11,910 ft)
- Lowest elevation
- 2,200 m (7,200 ft)
- Terminus
- Rotten (local name for Rhône ) above Gletsch
- Status
- Retreating
via Wikipedia infobox
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Rhône Glacier (German: Rhonegletscher, Walliser German: Rottengletscher, French: glacier du Rhône, Italian: ghiacciaio del Rodano) is a glacier in the Swiss Alps and the source of the river Rhône and one of the primary contributors to Lake Geneva in the far eastern end of the Swiss canton of Valais. While the glacier is accessible via the Furka Pass road, it can only be visited between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox (roughly 120 days a year).
Geography
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Rhone Glacier” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.