The Aargletschers, literally "Aare-Glaciers", are a system of

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

s located at the sources of the Aare river in the Bernese Alps,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. In the original German the name is "Aargletscher" both in singular and plural, as in German the plural of "gletscher" is only marked by a change of the

article Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...

: der Gletscher (one glacier), die Gletscher (many glaciers). The Aargletschers are constituted by two distinct partial glacier systems: *

Unteraargletscher The Unteraargletscher (), literally "Lower Aare-Glacier", is the larger of the two sources of the Aare river in the Bernese Alps. It emerges from the association of the Finsteraargletscher (near the Finsteraarhorn) and the Lauteraargletscher (ne ...

: composed by the converging ''Lauteraargletscher'' and ''Finsteraargletscher'', between the

Lauteraarhorn The Lauteraarhorn is a peak (4,042 m) of the Bernese Alps, located in the canton of Bern. Together with the higher Schreckhorn, to which it is connected by a high ridge, it lies between the valleys of the Lower Grindelwald Glacier and the Unteraa ...

, Finsteraarhorn () and Grimselsee (). * Oberaargletscher: between

Oberaarhorn The Oberaarhorn is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, located on the border between the Swiss cantons of Valais and Bern. Its summit (3,629 metres) is the tripoint between the basins of the Fiesch Fiesch is a municipality in the district of Go ...

() and

Oberaarsee Oberaarsee is a hydroelectric reservoir in the Grimsel area, part of the municipality of Guttannen, Switzerland. Its surface area is . The Oberaar dam was completed in 1953, and is operated by Kraftwerke Oberhasli. It is drained by the Oberaarbac ...

(). Grimselsee and Oberaarsee are recent reserve lakes. The "...-Aar-Horns" are summits of more than 3600 metres above sea level, two of them even above 4000 metres.

Sources

* Swisstopo (CH 3084 Wabern): ''Landeskarte der Schweiz 1:100 000'' ** No. 37 ''Brünigpass'' ** No. 42 ''Oberwallis'' Glaciers of Switzerland Glaciers of the Alps Glaciers of the canton of Bern Aare GAar {{Bern-glacier-stub

See also

Sources