Glacier hiking involves walking on a glacier with special equipment, such as crampons, rope, climbing harness, helmet and ice axe, so that to some degree it resembles mountaineering.
Glaciers are found on every continent except for Australia. They need a specific climate: generally a lot of snowfall during the winter and relatively cool temperatures during the summer. [1] Glacier Hiking has become a tourist attraction in some countries, but it requires special knowledge of the constantly-changing environments and glacial features. Hazards like crevasses and serac are difficult obstacles that glacier hikers should be aware of during this activity.
All continents, with the exception of Australia, have glacier hiking destinations. Some of these destinations are easily accessible, while others are more enjoyable at certain times of the year. Each glacier hiking excursion features at least one, if not more, different paid services to help with guided tours and different sightseeing experiences.
The Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main physiographic regions. The Swiss Alps extend over both the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, encompassing an area sometimes called Central Alps. While the northern ranges from the Bernese Alps to the Appenzell Alps are entirely in Switzerland, the southern ranges from the Mont Blanc massif to the Bernina massif are shared with other countries such as France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein.
Tourism in Sweden comprised a relatively small part of the Swedish economy in 2011 at 2.9% of the country's GDP; at this time, tourism generated 264 billion Swedish krona, 98.8 billion of which was foreign-visitor expenditure in Sweden. 7.1% of Swedish household income is spent on domestic tourism.
Mount Kilimanjaro is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. With three volcanic cones — Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira — it is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: 5,895 m (19,341 ft) above sea level and 4,900 m (16,100 ft) above its plateau base. It is also the highest volcano in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Scrambling is a mountaineering term for ascending steep terrain using one's hands to assist in holds and balance. "A scramble" is a related term, denoting terrain that could be ascended in this way. It can be described as being between hiking and rock climbing.
The Jungfrau, at 4,158 meters (13,642 ft) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall of mountains overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps.
In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier, a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around the ice. At the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago, large proglacial lakes were a widespread feature in the northern hemisphere.
Los Glaciares National Park is a federal protected area in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina.
The Highland or The Central Highland is an area that comprises much of the interior land of Iceland. The Highland is situated above 300–400 meters and is mostly uninhabitable. The soil is primarily volcanic ash, and the terrain consists of basalt mountains and lava fields. Snow covers the Highland from October until the beginning of June. A few oasis-like areas, such as Herðubreiðarlindir and Þórsmörk, are also found in the Highland. The area has many notable natural features and hiking trails.
Fox Glacier is a 13-kilometre-long (8.1 mi) temperate maritime glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Like nearby Franz Josef Glacier, Fox Glacier is one of the most accessible glaciers in the world, with a terminal face as low as 300 m above sea level, close to the village of Fox Glacier. It is a major tourist attraction and about 1000 people daily visit it during high tourist season.
The Franz Josef Glacier is a 12-kilometre-long (7.5 mi) temperate maritime glacier in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Together with the Fox Glacier 20 kilometres (12 mi) to the south, and a third glacier, it descends from the Southern Alps to less than 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level.
The Perito Moreno Glacier is a glacier located in Los Glaciares National Park in southwest Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, and originated in the Magallanes Region in Chile. It is one of the most important tourist attractions in the Argentine Patagonia.
Cannon Mountain is a 4,080-foot (1,240 m) peak in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It is known for both its technical rock and ice climbing on its cliff face and skiing at Cannon Mountain Ski Area. It was also home to the Old Man of the Mountain, until that formation collapsed on May 3, 2003.
Chugach State Park covers 495,204 acres covering a hilly region immediately east of Anchorage, in south-central Alaska.
Denali State Park is a 325,240-acre (131,620 ha) state park in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough adjacent to the east side of Denali National Park and Preserve, along the Parks Highway.
El Calafate, also called Calafate, is a city in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz, in Patagonia. It is located on the southern border of Lago Argentino, in the southwest part of the province. The name of the city is also the name of a small bush, with yellow flowers and dark-blue berries, that is very commonly seen in the region—the calafate. The word comes from the word calafate, which is Spanish for 'caulk'.
The Ala-Archa Nature Park is an alpine national park in the Tian Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan, located approximately 35 km south of the capital city of Bishkek. Established in 1976, it currently covers 16,485 hectares.
Trolltunga is a rock formation situated about 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) above sea level in Ullensvang Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The cliff juts horizontally out from the mountain, about 700 metres (2,300 ft) above the north side of the lake Ringedalsvatnet.
Tourists are drawn to Switzerland's diverse landscape as well as the available activities, which take advantage of the Alpine climate and landscapes, in particular skiing and mountaineering.
A glacier terminus, toe, or snout, is the end of a glacier at any given point in time. Although glaciers seem motionless to the observer, in reality they are in endless motion and the glacier terminus is always either advancing or retreating. The location of the terminus is often directly related to glacier mass balance, which is based on the amount of snowfall which occurs in the accumulation zone of a glacier, as compared to the amount that is melted in the ablation zone. The position of a glacier terminus is also impacted by localized or regional temperature change over time.
The Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area is located in south-western Switzerland between the cantons of Bern and Valais. It is a mountainous region in the easternmost side of the Bernese Alps, containing the northern wall of Jungfrau and Eiger, and the largest glaciated area in western Eurasia, comprising the Aletsch Glacier. The Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area is the first World Natural Heritage site in the Alps; it was inscribed in 2001.