The Lötschental is a 26 km long valley located on the northern side of the Rhône valley in the canton of Valais in SW Switzerland. It is southwest-facing for most of its length, but in its lowest reaches it turns sharply to the south and descends steeply to join the Rhône valley. The valley is overlooked by peaks in excess of 3000 m, including Tschingelhorn (3562 m), Breithorn (3780 m) and Bietschorn (3934 m).
The field trip starts at the car park at Fafleralp (1770 m), which is in the upper part of the valley. It follows the path to the south of the River Lonza, following it upvalley towards the Langgletscher (glacier). Before reaching the glacier, it crosses the river and climbs the northern slopes to around 2100 m, before heading downvalley again.
The imagery for this virtual field trip was acquired in June 2018. You can download location data for each of the stops (for viewing in Google Earth, ArcGIS, QGIS etc), although location information is also provided within the virtual field trip itself.
I'm a Physical Geographer at the University of Worcester (England, UK). Interests include mountain glaciers, mountain geomorphology and Quaternary environmental change. I'm also interested in the use of virtual reality in teaching.
In order to support the ongoing development of this site, it would be really helpful if you could let me know why and how you use the resource. I’d also appreciate hearing any ideas you may have for improvements. Thank you!
This website allows you to explore glaciers and glaciated landscapes using virtual field trips. High quality, 360 degree interactive panoramas (panospheres) allow you to look all around and zoom in on features of interest – a bit like Google Streetview ©.
