Längfluh

High above Saas Fee, the Längfluh (2,870m asl) rises as a jagged outcrop in the Pennine Alps, dividing the bright sweep of the Fee Glacier. Framed by the Dom to the north and the Allalinhorn to the south, this corner of Valais has always felt shaped by ice, altitude, and alpine light.

The glacier lies east of the Mischabel range, a slow, shifting body of ice that has carved crevasses and smooth snowfields for generations. Yet the landscape is changing. Warming seasons have thinned the ice, reshaped familiar contours, and uncovered patches that once stayed buried in snow. During our visit in summer 2024, a coating of Saharan dust ¹ had settled across the surface, carried north by high winds. It leaves a faint, earthy tint over the glacier, a veil of sand that feels out of place in such a cold, high world.

The effect is more than visual. The sand and dust darken the surface, lowering the glacier’s albedo ², so it absorbs more sunlight and melts more quickly. From the Längfluh you can see these subtle shifts, the way colour, texture, and shadow evolve over the year as the glacier responds to climate and weather.

It's striking to remember that this glacier once stretched far down the valley, feeding the landscape that now feels so exposed. Old moraine lines still mark the hillsides, quiet reminders of where the ice used to sit. The contrast between that long geological timescale and the rapid changes of recent decades gives the place a feeling of suspended time, as if the mountains are holding two eras at once.

Photographing this environment invites slower attention. The more you look, the more the subtleties emerge, from the ochre traces of desert dust to the fine fractures running across the ice. These images try to capture that tension, the beauty of a high alpine landscape and the evidence of a warming climate written directly into its surface.

1. Gabbi, J., Huss, M., Bauder, A., Cao, F., Schwikowski, M. (2015). The impact of Saharan dust and black carbon on albedo and long‑term glacier mass balance. Based on a centennial (1914–2014) record of impurity deposition and mass balance measurements at Claridenfirn (Swiss Alps), the study assesses how mineral dust and black carbon lower surface albedo and enhance melt, demonstrating significant effects on glacier mass balance via darkening of snow and firn.↩
2. Di Mauro, B., Julitta, T., Colombo, R. (2016). Glacier albedo decrease in the European Alps: potential causes and links with mass balances. Based on MODIS satellite data (2000–2015), the study identifies a widespread decline in summer albedo across Alpine glaciers and a strong correlation with rising summer air temperatures.↩