After a night train from Slovenia and we were in Switzerland. We stopped briefly in Zurich (the largest city in Switzerland, located at the edge of Zurich Lake) which allowed me to visit the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), regarded as one of the top universities in the world with over 21 Nobel Prize laureates (such as Albert Einstein!). I was considering studying here in the future so it was an excellent opportunity to check out the university in person. After that it was off to what Switzerland is known best for, and no, not chocolate or pocket knives, but mountains – the spectacular Swiss Alps! This blog is therefore all about the famous mountains.

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Map of journey through Switzerland
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Myself on top of the Switzerland Alps, Near Jungfrau Lauterbrunnen

I wasn’t sure how to I would react when we made our way to south-central Switzerland, near Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen, and the start of the Alps mountain range. Being from British Columbia, Canada, particularly the Whistler/Vancouver area, I’m used to towering, glacier-cap mountains. That being said, my first reaction was how similar it all looked, but then as I truly gawked around more I notice how actually high and vertical the faces of the mountains were, and accompanied with the glowing green grassy hills, they definitely offered a much different feel than Canada.

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The Alps Mountain Range in Switzerland, near Interlaken

And the best way to see the mountains? Why, go to the very top! All you have to do is take a train to the “top of Europe” Juangfrau, or you can do what we did and get a more intimate, if a bit sketchy, experience with the rocks and climb up doing a via ferrata (cross between mountain walking and rock climbing).

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Nadine doing a via ferrata in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

How to build a mountain 101

The impressive scale of these mountains can be attributed to the same mechanisms that cause earthquakes and tsunamis; plate tectonics. The Alps are the result of a collision between two tectonic plates, the African and Eurasian plates (where the continents of African and Europe/Asia reside on, but the plates themselves extend past the edge of the landmass and far into the surrounding oceans).

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Tectonic Plates of Earth (USGS 2013)

The African plate migrated northward, at speeds probably no more than 10-15c m/year, until it eventually collided with the stable Eurasian plate and swallowed up a former sea separating the two plates, called the Tethys. Over time this constant pressure resulted in rocks being squeezed, folded, and thrusted upward. Thus the final result is spectacular, high standing mountains with bends and folds visible within the rocks. The whole process started about 55 million years ago, so geologically speaking, this is actually quite a young mountain belt.

Plate Tectonics Europe Collision Africa Switzerland Alps Formation
Switzerland Europe Alps Jungfrau Lauterbrunnen Swiss Travel Adventure Mountains Glacier Rock Climbing Via Ferrata Snow Geology Formation Plate Tectonics Photography Folds Compression Layers Layered Limestone
Layered Limestone Rocks of Swiss Alps at Jungfrau, Switzerland
Switzerland Europe Alps Jungfrau Lauterbrunnen Swiss Travel Adventure Mountains Glacier Rock Climbing Via Ferrata Snow Geology Formation Plate Tectonics Photography Folds Compression Layers Layered Limestone
Layers and layers of rocks compressed and folded onto of the Swiss Alps, at Jungfrau, Switzerland

Glacier-carved valleys

Like British Columbia, these mountain ranges also experience heavy glaciations. Since about 2.5 million years ago the cyclic glacial periods have lead to these massive ice blocks carving out sharp mountain faces, and rounding valleys, like the classic glacial U-shaped valley of Lauterbrunnen (as opposed to river formed valleys which are more V-shaped).

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V-shaped valley (left) formed by rivers, and U-shaped valleys (middle and right) formed by glaciers
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Classic U-Shaped Valley of Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

The name’s Bond…

From the “top of Europe” claim of Jungfrau to the revolving restaurant on the summit of Schilthorn, I thought these looked like picturesque spots for some secret mountain fortress and kept thinking “I’m pretty sure a James Bond was filmed here”…

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Switzerland’s Schilthorn was the location of the 6th James Bond 007 Movie

Well it turns out I was right, go figure. This was where On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was set, the 6th James Bond film in the series and only one starring the not so popular George Lazenby. The revolving restaurant at the top of Schilthorn called Piz Gloria in particular was a main location for the film. So yeah, score one for James Bond trivia!

Final thoughts

The Alps are one of the most impressive mountain ranges in the world. And like most thing, but especially in this case, it is something you have to see for yourself rather than in a picture to truly get the sense of its awe-inspiring scale. Yes it is very similar to Canada and the coastal belt in BC, but add some rolling green meadows and old Swiss chateaus, and you’ll see how unparalleled the land of the Swiss really is.

-Stephanie

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Myself in the Classic U-Shaped Valley of Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

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