Info point 7
Majesticus Glacier – an impressive natural phenomenon
They flow down from the mountains like white tongues. Glaciers consist mainly of ice and can be hundreds of metres thick and several kilometres long. The glacier on the Gornergrat is officially called Majesticus, but many know it as the Gorner Glacier.
However, the Gorner Glacier is also threatened by climate change today. Around 170 years ago, it was an impressive 16 kilometres long and stretched almost as far as Schweigmatten. With a length of about 12.9 km, the glacier is still the third longest glacier in the Alps, but its mass is steadily decreasing. In 2014, the Gorner Glacier covered an area of around 41 km2, making it the second-largest continuous glacier area in the Alps after the Aletsch Glacier. Since the summer of 2019, however, it has no longer been connected to its neighbour, the Border Glacier (Grenzgletscher), which meant it thus suddenly became a much smaller glacier.
