Colin experiences Global Warming

Before we headed home Monday we decided to go over to Grindelwald and take a little hike up to the glacier caves. We had visited there when we lived in Germany 12 years ago and remembered how amazing it was to walk right up into the foot of a glacier and wanted to let Colin experience this. The first part of the hike was much as we remembered it, but then we came upon a huge cliff of rock with wooden stairs leading straight up it. Bill and I wondered how we could have possible done that with a stroller back in 1994 and figured we must have taken a different path to the glacier. Bill's love of heights (NOT!) made him decide to wait for Colin and me with his feet firmly on the ground while we climbed the over 800 stairs to the top. WHEW!













At the top of the stairs we walked across the rock to a newly built rope bridge spanning a chasm with rushing glacial runoff many feet below us. There was a corral of safety fences at the other side of the gorge and that was the 'end of the line'. We weren't at the foot of the glacier, in fact we couldn't even see the foot of it, it was way above us and around the corner. Disappointed Colin and I walked back to the little hut on the rocks by the stairs that served drinks and snacks. While I drank my Coke I looked at some postcards sitting on the counter and talked to the lady who worked there. Here are scans of the postcards:




I wanted to know where we could go to see this and she told us that the last year they had caves like this was the year 2000. The photo on the left with the planks going across was where the bridge we crossed is today. The foot of the glacier is nowhere near this spot only 7 years later. We talked more and figured out that the reason we didn't remember climbing all those stairs when Jeffrey was little was because we didn't need to! The glacier was way down there and we could stroll up the the foot of it. Colin kept shaking his head and saying that he had heard about global warming but THIS is experiencing it! Sad.