Bettmeralp

Bettmeralp with Bettmerhorn

Bettmeralp is since 1 January 2014, a district of the same name Bettmeralp in the Swiss canton of Valais ; until the end of 2013 it was part of the former community of Betten .

Geography and climate

Bettmersee above Bettmeralp, view of the Bättlihorn

Bettmeralp is 1948 m above sea level. M. above the main town of Betten on a car-free high plateau. The plateau borders directly to the north on the Aletsch Glacier and slopes to the south from about 2100 m above sea level. M. easy up to 1800 m above sea level. M. before the Bannwald falls deep into the valley of the Rhone . Since 2001, the whole area has been part of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage Site .

Historic aerial photo by Werner Friedli from 1949

Due to the location above the Rhone Valley, inversion weather conditions occur in winter , which fill the valley with high fog and lead to special views from the often sunny high plateau.

economy

Aletsch Arena ski area with the mountain station of the Moosfluh gondola above Bettmeralp

The high plateau, which once served exclusively as an alp of the hillside village of Betten , was expanded into a holiday resort with inns, hotels, holiday apartments as well as ski lifts and a gondola to the Bettmerhorn since the end of the 1950s . Today, Bettmeralp presents itself as a holiday destination for both winter guests (alpine skiing in the Aletsch Arena , cross-country skiing, hiking) and summer guests (hiking, climbing, glacier tours, running, mountain biking, paragliding). The townscape is characterized by typical Valais houses and holiday homes that are fitted into the country's style.

Cableways

Bettmeralp can only be reached by cable car from the Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn station ( 800 m above sea level ). From the valley station you can either take the smaller aerial cableway built in 1951 (with a change at Betten Dorf) to Bettmeralp, or via the direct feeder built in 1974 (120 people / cabin). The cable car overcomes a height difference of more than 1,000 m in 7 minutes. This direct line was equipped with new cabins in November 2006. Since the construction of the large cabins in 1974, the facility has made it possible to transport the garbage collection trolleys attached below from the valley to the alp and back.

On July 12, 1972, a serious accident with twelve fatalities occurred on what was then the only cable car, today the smaller one. Shortly before 7:00 p.m. a cabin was on its way from Betten Tal to Betten Dorf and had already covered more than half of the distance. To date, this section of the route is served by just one cabin, which is pulled up on a pull rope using the suspension ropes. The cabin came to a standstill around 20 meters before the cabin passed the only steel pillar located just before the Betten Dorf mountain station. The pulling rope had broken, and so after the brief standstill the car moved downhill at a slower speed and then at an ever higher speed. The cabin moved unchecked towards the valley station on the then Furka-Oberalp railway line (now the Matterhorn-Gotthard railway) and crashed into the concrete wall of the valley station. Of the 14 passengers in the cabin, 11 were rescued dead and 2 seriously injured from the ruins of the cabin, and one passenger who jumped out of the cabin was also killed.

Mountain run

A high-class mountain run ( half marathon ) along the longest glacier in the Alps, the Aletsch Glacier, has been held on Bettmeralp since 1986 . Around 1,050 meters of altitude are covered over a distance of 21.095 km. In 2011, more than 2,000 participants from more than a dozen nations crossed the finish line for the first time.