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Images of Mt. Pilatus and Lake Lucerne in Switzerland |
Our plans for the day were
fairly straight-forward, a climb of 7,000 foot Mt. Pilatus by aerial
tramway, descent of Mt. Pilatus by way of cogwheel railway, and a
walking exploration of the town of Lucerne, including, in the case
of your webmaster, the gletschergarten ("Glacier Garden"), a
unique geological museum in the middle of the town. The day had its
thrills and chills, but thankfully no crises, or disasters.
Heading Up Mt.
Pilatus
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Flower garden along Lake Lucerne |
Lucerne is a beautiful, well-kept
town. The long walkway along the
lakeshore was lined with gardens and
had wonderful vistas of the
surrounding alpine scenery. It was
hard to believe that we were only
about 1,500 feet above sea level! |
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Lake Lucerne |
As noted before, Lake
Lucerne is a glacial trough, carved
during the four advances of ice
during the Pleistocene epoch between
12 thousand and 2 million years ago.
The sediments in the bottom of this
very deep lake contain evidence not
only of climate change in the last
12,000 years, but also a record of
seismic activity, in the form of
underwater landslide deposits. A
magnitude 6 quake in 1601 caused a
10 foot high tsunami along the
lake's shoreline. |
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Mt. Pilatus from the porch of our
hotel |
One of my complaints
about alpine landscapes is that
sometimes it is difficult to keep
powerlines out of the view! Mt.
Pilatus rises almost 6,000 feet
about the shores of Lake Lucerne. It
is part of the thrust fault system
of rocks that have been pushed up
and over the sediments and crust to
the north. As the mountains were
being pushed up for the first time,
the earliest mountains shed debris
and sediment as flysch and
molasse deposits which were
later over-ridden by those same
mountains as they were pushed
northwards. |
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A
bit of science.... |
In other words, the
rugged upper slopes of Pilatus,
composed of contorted limestone
layers, are older, and are
sitting on top of the softer
underlying younger sediments.
This diagram is a geological
cross-section of Pilatus. |
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Tramway to Pilatus |
The tramway climbs
Pilatus in two parts, the lower in
4-person cars, and the upper part
in...well...we couldn't see that
part yet. The lower tram hugged the
topography, rarely more than a few
tens of feet off the ground. Heck,
this wasn't so scary! We passed
quiet meadows with grazing cows (the
cowbells were a distinctive sound),
and nicely kept farm houses.
Occasionally we passed over hikers
climbing the mountain the hard way.
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View towards Lucerne |
A look behind us
confirmed that we had climbed a
considerable distance up the flanks
of the mountain. We could see the
north shore of Lake Lucerne and the
site of our hotel. 'What a beautiful
clear day', I thought, but I
shouldn't have. There's Murphy's Law
to contend with. Looking up the
mountain, I could see the clouds
building up! |
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The second tram station |
We arrived at the
transfer station where we would be
catching the trams that would take
us to the summit of the mountain.
Looking up the hill from the tram
station, I noticed what I thought
were telephone or electrical
wires...then I noticed something was
moving...that little dot up in the
cloud... |
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The upper gondola |
...was the gondola
car, which was carrying somewhere
around 40 people. My arrogance of
not being nervous on a tram of any
sort was about to dissipate.... |
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Leaving the tram station |
But, what was to be
done? I was gonna see that
mountain-top. We crowded into the
claustrophobic little cabin and
headed up the acrophobic cable up
the mountain. We rose quickly into
the air. |
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Where did everything go? |
And just like that,
the world disappeared...we rose into
the clouds that had been building
all morning, and it was just
strange. The cable to which we hung
disappeared into the cloud above us,
and below us. There was no sense of
height, of gaping depths...there was
just grayness all around. And now I
was getting upset...would there be
nothing visible from the summit?
Darn it, I had been waiting more
than a year for this moment, and I
felt a rising sense of
disappointment...
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Overview of the summit complex on
Pilatus |
We arrived at the top
station still enveloped in fog, and
nothing was visible at all. Oh,
well. Maybe a walk to the summit
another 100-200 feet up? I start
climbing up the steep trail, and the
sun starts to come out! We can see
the summit complex, the store, hotel
and tram station! |
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Summit ridge trail |
And, yes! The clouds
are clearing and I can see the high
Alps in the distance! |
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Summit View |
I heard someone ahead
of me say "Wow!". I turned the
corner and said "WOW"! The high Alps
were playing hide-and-seek with the
clouds. It was a glorious sight.
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Sustenhorn and Titlis |
It has taken some map
work and Google-Earthing to get
myself oriented, but I have started
to identify some of the mountain
peaks on the skyline.Sustenhorn
on left and Titlis on right |
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Titlis |
Titlis (3,238 m).
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Triftgletscher?
I am still working on this one! |
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European Ravens were all over the
place. |
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I'm
not saying they're regimental in
nature or anything.... |
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Folded carbonate rocks from the
summit of Pilatus |
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Heading Down Mt. Pilatus
Yes, we had made
it up the mountain, now it was time to go down the mountain! Off we
went to the train station...
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Gathering our wits |
Why are these fine people smiling,
and yet at the same time
experiencing trepidation? Well, they
are sitting in the cogwheel train
about to go down the steepest
railway in the world, with some
slopes greater than 45 degrees.
Remember that feeling on the top of
a roller coaster, or the log ride,
or Thunder Mountain? It was kind of
like that.... |
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Over the edge! |
And down we
plunged!....slid!.....er....careened!....well,
crept. As steep as it was, it was
not fast, and not as scary as you
would think. It's not like we were
hanging in open space hundreds of
feet above the rocks.... |
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Avalanche Tunnel |
The upper slopes of
Pilatus are exceedingly steep, so
avalanche protection is a
necessity.... |
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Limestone cliffs |
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Access road on lower slopes |
Does somebody mow
this grass?? The lower slopes have a
really manicured look about them.
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Lucerne Lake |
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Exploring Lake
Lucerne (under construction)
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