It's a gorgeous day out there but I have to work (and should really be doing something other than blogging...) Mind you, it's a great couple of jobs I've secured, so I'm not really complaining.
Still, a big part of me feels in walkabout mode (like the Australian aborigines) and would much rather be on a plane to Scotland for a long hike about the islands on the west coast while the days are still moderately long...
But enough of this.
Here comes a long promised glimpse of the great Aletsch Glacier, very close up. You may remember my post from last August, when I participated in the Greenpeace / Spencer Tunick photo shoot
up there. Still one of the best memories of this summer past...
Above: lateral glacier mouth, probably carved out by the stream that comes down from the Maerjelen valley.
What created this beautiful azure "eye" in the glacier's surface? Fist-size, about hand-depth. The beginning of a new crevace, perhaps?
The glacier moves all the time, creating these "waves", cracks and crevaces. Treacherous territory, better tackled with an experienced guide and proper gear (good clothing, sun protection, very sturdy hiking boots, crampons, piton, ropes etc.)... Very much something I'd like to do: walk up the glacier from the tip of its tongue to Jungfraujoch. Not sure it'd be doable in one day. 
Above/below: same location, different horizon...
In these photos you can see quite clearly the thick layer of soot (oily, sticky, horrible) deposited this season. This, too, contributes to the glacier melting apace.
There's great beauty in the contrast between the dirty, sooty, splintery grit, the white top layer of ice and ice-blue (ha!) of deeper ice. And the gritty surface means the glacier's surface is not as slippery as I thought it might be.(Remember: the last time I was on the glacier was back in 1971, on a spring-time skiing hike down the thickly snowed-in glacier from Jungfraujoch to Konkordiaplatz and off to the right up to Loetschenluecke. The downhill run was superb fun, the hike up to the mountain refuge a long, long slog made worse by the fact that you could see the hut virtually all the time, sitting at the top of the hill. The trek was up then down then up then down then up then down -- terrible! The dormitory was very cramped and noisy. I remember having a bad headache all night and barely sleeping. Does this mean I'd be useless at high altitude? Perhaps not if I made my way up slowly and on foot rather than by cog-wheel rail. Also, I was probably suffering from mild dehydration. Great experience nonetheless!)
To finish off this short trip down memory lane, a couple of peaks to be seen from about half-way down the Aletsch Glacier:
Above: Olmenhorn on the glacier's western side -- unless I'm totally mistaken. Below: Eggishorn on the eastern side, a polished flank of granite.
It'd be interesting to know just how long it takes for some vegetation to take hold on those polished rocks. I'd say the bigger patches of green must be at least fifty years old. Do correct me if I'm wrong...
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