Comments on: Welcome To The Top of Europe

Welcome To The Top of Europe

jonson — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:39:40 -0800

atop the Jungfraujoch in the Swiss alps is one of the most amazing man-made objects I've ever seen. A UNESCO world-heritage site, it holds the distinction of being the highest (in altitude) structure in all of Europe. Approachable by a train that runs inside the mountain (via a tunnel dug between 1896 & 1926 at the cost of a small fortune, not to mention many lives), the Observatory rests atop a glacier which has been hollowed out to feature a year round gallery of never-melting ice scultptures (glacial ice is spectacularly pretty), and an elevator up to the research station.

By: jonson

jonson — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:40:52 -0800

Hey, I normally don't make posts with tons of links, cause I feel like it detracts from the main thrust, but I really think there are a lot of great images (and some interesting panoramas) that weren't all collected in any one place, so do yourself a favor if the first link intrigues you, and click through the rest.

By: Arturus

Arturus — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:50:52 -0800

That's amazing, and I want to go there.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:57:49 -0800

Cool / Kewl.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:23:16 -0800

Reminds me of the Aiguille du Midi on Mont Blanc.

By: humannaire

humannaire — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:32:42 -0800

Well, if it's one of the coolest things jonson's ever seen, count me in, too!

By: rob511

rob511 — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:45:37 -0800

I can almost make out Blofeld's bald pate, gleaming in the Alpen gloaming....

By: scalefree

scalefree — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:46:15 -0800

Awesome set, thanks. I like how in the cutaway they label all the objects in the picture. Ice palace, scientific station, sphinx...husky dogs!

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:05:35 -0800

Glacier ice is jaw-droppingly beautiful. Far more so than the photos can ever portray. If you ever have a chance to get inside a glacier, do so.

By: Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:16:17 -0800

Nicely done post (once more) jonson.

By: quin

quin — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:27:08 -0800

Ancient "Observatory" on top of a hollowed out mountain? Dedicated railroad? Glaciers? Penguin ghosts? Are we absolutely sure this isn't the lair of a Bond villain?

By: Richard Daly

Richard Daly — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:29:51 -0800

(via a tunnel dug between 1896 & 1926 at the cost of a small fortune, not to mention many lives) There's a tunnel between 1896 and 1926? Cool!

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:47:24 -0800

Wow, that's goddamn amazing. Another brilliant post, jonson. Thanks.

By: grobstein

grobstein — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:23:27 -0800

There's a tunnel between 1896 and 1926? Cool! It's not that cool unless you can get to 1926 to try it out.

By: jonson

jonson — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:52:46 -0800

I like how in the cutaway they label all the objects in the picture. Ice palace, scientific station, sphinx...husky dogs! I personally found that a little cruel. I mean, those dogs aren't husky, they're just big boned.

By: Psychnic

Psychnic — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:39:51 -0800

Are we absolutely sure this isn't the lair of a Bond villain? What coincidence! James Bond was just a few miles away! With a bit of imagination, you can see the Jungfrau observatory on the far left.

By: Psychnic

Psychnic — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:48:22 -0800

heh, I see my memory is obscured by clouds, unlike rob511's.

By: [expletive deleted]

[expletive deleted] — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:52:41 -0800

Too few things in this world are perched atop sinuous glaciers, or hewn from the living rock, for that matter. We need more of this.

By: Deathalicious

Deathalicious — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 05:17:40 -0800

never-melting ice scultptures ...just you wait. A scientific observatory built on top of a glacier?!? Do any of you watch movies?

By: roue

roue — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:13:48 -0800

I was there in 2000. The railway ride up is quite a trip. Once we got there, though, my low altitude New Jersey corpuscles left me pretty debilitated. I could barely walk around for lack of O2. Did make the ice sculptures seem a bit more trippy though.

By: longbaugh

longbaugh — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:20:55 -0800

/derail OHMSS is the best Bond film actually based on Fleming's novels. I will not allow this to be disputed.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:13:19 -0800

Oh man. I want to live there. Seriously. Oxygen starvation and all.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:08:10 -0800

If you ever have a chance to get inside a glacier, do so. I've tried, I've tried man. But she's cold as ice.

By: Araucaria

Araucaria — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:43:04 -0800

I was up there in September 1996. The train ride is extremely expensive, but it's worth the trip -- along the way, you pass holes in the face of the Eiger Nordwand overlooking the valley of Grindelwald, and you might encounter climbers starting or ending expeditions from those locations. The day I was up there, they had husky dog-sled rides around a short snow track a short distance from the observatory. If you decide to try a ride, I'd advise waiting until the dogs have gone around 5 times or so, as the first sudden exertion of the morning stimulates the dogs' to defecate on the run. For less altitude sensitive, you can hike up to the MönchsJochsHütte, which straddles the saddle between the Jungfrau and the Mönch. Great spot for a simple lunch, precariously perched over the abyss.

By: cadge

cadge — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:23:15 -0800

I just visited this last summer! I have a postcard of it on my cube wall ... happy memories. Hiking up to Kleine Scheidegg and hearing clinky cowbells along the way, taking the train up through the mountain, finding an Indian restaurant in Jungfraujoch, finding some walkways blocked off due to falling icicle, and seeing the mountaintops just across the way - man, I want to go there again.

By: dmd

dmd — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:25:16 -0800

By the way, for best results, do not visit Jungfraujoch in November.

By: humannaire

humannaire — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:51:16 -0800

It's not that cool unless you can get to 1926 to try it out. Alright, I know it's a joke, but there is something fundamentally glitchy about this premise.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:02:02 -0800

wow, jonson, I missed this but just found it in this week's podcast and so glad because you have given me great memories of one of the best days in my life taking the train up the Jungfrau. The Sphinx wasn't available at that time, drat - I can't remember if it was just being completed, or if it was already completed but just not available that day. I was traveling alone and had planned to just take the train just to Kleine Scheidegg because the cost to go to the top was very pricey. But I ran into a really fun group of Australians and Koreans who sort of adopted me and persuaded me to go to the top. That was providential because it was so well worth it to see that spectacular view and the ice castle was just perfect. It was utterly awesome to be there (despite a bad case of altitude sickness and battling my intense acrophobia). Now that I have read this great post, I'm jonesing to go back. I would strongly recommend Switzerland and the Jungfrau to everyone at least once. I wrote up some of my Switzerland experiences in a trip report.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 09:25:12 -0800

From he first link: “At an amazing 3.571 metres, the Sphinx observatory at Swiss Alps is the highest-altitude construction in Europe.” That's not really that high in altitude by North American standards. For example, here in Albuquerque, you can take the tramway to the top of the Sandias, where there's a restaurant and such at 3,163 meters in elevation. I'm sure there must be some substantial structures built above 3,571 meters somewhere in the Rockies and Sierra Nevadas. That's not even 12,000 feet. Of course, what makes the Alps so impressive, beside the fact that they're extraordinarily beautiful mountains, is that the base elevation of the mountains is relatively low compared to, say, the Rocky Mountains. So the vertical rise of the mountains themselves are very large. In contrast, the base elevation at the bottom of much of the Rocky Mountains is usually already around a mile. Albuquerque's at 5,312 feet, or 1,619 meters, for example.

By: humannaire

humannaire — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:59:02 -0800

Wait. There's a MetaTravel?

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:19:01 -0800

Apparently it's TravelFilter, according to the link on the bottom of its page.