Like a river of ice, the Fiescher Glacier winds slowly but relentlessly down the Swiss Alps, following gravity in sweeping S-curves. It is framed by frost-shattered granite slabs, weathered into plates—like the open pages of an ancient book of Earth’s history—beneath a gloomy thunderstorm sky, tinged with the final colors of the day before night sets in.
Stretching nearly 14 kilometers (8.7 miles), the Fiescher Glacier is the second-longest glacier in the Alps. Its accumulation zone lies above 4000 meters height (13.100 feet) near the Fiescherhorn in the Finsteraarhorn massif and descends to its sinuous terminus in the Fiescher gorge at about 1700 meters (5580 feet). Driven by human-induced climate change, it is retreating at an accelerating pace—losing more than 50 meters (165 feet) in length each year. However, far more dramatic is the glacier’s vertical loss: its ice thins by two to three meters (6.5–10 feet) annually. This massive volume loss is visible in the pale gray rock walls flanking the glacier, marking its maximum ice-height around the year 1850.
The V-shaped rocks in the foreground are continental granites and gneisses, iconic and defining for this alpine landscape. Growing on them are green and black map lichens of the Rhizocarpon genus—ancient symbiotic communities of fungi and algae. On the barren rock, they begin the quiet labor of life. Their acids etch microscopic traces into the stone, releasing minerals they need to grow—leaving behind organic substances in the process. Thus, millimeter by millimeter, year by year, they prepare the ground for other pioneering plants that will follow. To stay with the image of an open book: they form the first line in the long chapter of the vegetation.
The glacier, the rock, the lichens—together they reveal a story of time, perpetual change, and the relentless forces of nature and life itself. The consequences of our profound disruption of nature are both a warning and an invitation: to take a closer look and to truly understand—before the pages of this book close forever.