Off we go from Rosenlaui, 19 August 2008, down the single-lane road to the valley floor near Meiringen, somewhat cautiously since our brakes were not working when we drove in a few days ago. They seem fine now, though, so far.
Instead of blasting home on the motorway via Berne, we've turned right near Meiringen (± 600m) and we're headed up the Haslital to go over the Bernese Oberland into the Valais at the Grimselpass. We've motored through Innertkirchen and Guttanen now, and it's time to stretch the aging knees -- this is the dam of the Räterichsbodensee at 1767m.
The Räterichsbodensee, with the Grimselpass peeking down at us
The road below the dam, leading up from the north
The dam's spillway squatting there like an enormous toilet for the mountain gods.
Dam Art. Probably like when they get the local schoolchildren to come in and paint the underground passages of the train stations with scenes of local folklore. (They probably just lowered the kids down on ropes and little harnesses.)
The road up from Guttanen, Lucerne, Zürich, and points north
One dam, and one lake, farther up the hill now, the Grimselsee (1909m), with the Räterichsbodensee below on the right. There are actually two dams here, and the Grimsel Hospiz is sitting out there on that promontory, which would be like an island except that there's just a big cliff on the back end on it.
Another view of the Grimsel Hospiz on its little half-an-island.
The Grimselpass (2165m) and the blue Totesee ("the Dead Sea"?), with the Furkapass in the far distance.
Oh joy oh bliss. A marmot paradise! Kristin loves nothing so much as a marmot (except a pig).
"Where are the goddam marmots then?"
There's one -- squirrelly little furball wondering what happened to his cosy earthen burrow.
A friend of his, sitting all cuddly out in the sun in his little pen, waiting for raptor birds to scream down out of the sky and nowhere to go to escape except back into his concrete air-raid shelter. (Note to Kristin: Call them squirrels if you want to, but they still look like rats.)
The Totesee at the Grimselpass, 19 August 2008
The hotel Grimsel Passhöhe.
A little island in the Totesee. What's that statue just off the left shore? I couldn't see it well enough from that distance, but I'm afraid that it might be an artistically stylized marmot.
Once over the Grimselpass, we're looking up to the east at the Furkapass (2431m), upper right, and what's left of the Rhône Glacier, the source of the mighty River Rhône, up on the left. (Cathy and I blew out her VW bug's engine at the top of that pass back in 1979; some gentlemen climbers towed us down to Andermatt on the far side with a climbing rope.)
The outflow of the Rhônegletscher, as you see it here, is a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance, designated by Switzerland in 2005. Here's the brief description from the Annotated Ramsar List: "Rhonegletschervorfeld. 02/02/05; Valais; 317 hectares; 46°34'N 008°22'E. IFP, Alluvial Zone of National Importance. The site includes the spur of ice of the Rhône glacier (source of the Rhône River) and the recent glacier foreland, between 1,750 and 2,485 meters asl. The flat alpine alluvial zone of Gletschbode contains the various stages of plant successions from the pioneer associations on raw ground up to the forests of larches and different types of vegetation developing on wet, moist and even dry grounds. The glacier foreland is an important place for the mountain avifauna, and 25 species of birds are breeding on site, among which are the Rock Partridge, the Black Grouse, the Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush. In summer and autumn, the site is used for recreation (hiking, alpinism, ice grotto visit) and grazed by cattle on restricted areas. The Cantonal Service of the Forests and Landscape is in charge of the management of the site. Ramsar site no. 1445. Most recent RIS information: 2005." 
The early stretches of the Rhône River with, above it, the Glacier Express rail line and the Furkapass-Strasse road over to eastern Switzerland.
The Rhonegletscher tucked in there, with the old Belvédère hotel and the Furkapass road winding up to the right. The tourist walk from the Belvédère to its famous Ice Grotto must be getting longer and longer these days.
The venerable Belvédère hotel at 2300m.
The village of Gletsch (1757m) below us -- Furka is up to the left, but we're going down towards the right, out the valley to Brig and along the tedious old road through Visp and Sierre to pick up the motorway and speed pell-mell back towards Geneva . . .
. . . with just time for lunch in one of the beautiful villages in the Obergoms valley along the way.
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 1 September 2008.
