Bettmeralp, Switzerland
To begin yesterday's hike, we the Moosfluh gondola to the top where I learned that it was engineered to withstand a 10 meter (30 foot!) shift in elevation over the coming years. As the Aletscher Glacier recedes to the north, the mountain ridge next to the glacier is becoming more unstable and starting to shift downwards as the pressure from the glacier lessens (perhaps too simply put) so the Swiss are busy planning ahead. All around the gondola station we could see surveying tripods. But most impressively, this new station was planned to withstand a giant elevation shift. In fact, that part of the ridge shifted down by one meter (3 feet) just last year. These secondary effects of climate change are the kinds of things I had not even imagined. And it's hugely impressive that structures themselves can be engineered to adapt. Wow.
