GEOLOGY, SCENERY, NATURAL HISTORY
OF
THE SWISS
ALPS
A STUDY TOUR
led by Paul Selden and Danny Stockli
Department of Geology, University of Kansas
and the Natural History Museum, London
May 22nd to June 5th, 2010
The tour will go by first-class train throughout Switzerland. We
shall stay in four centres (Luzern, Wengen, Zermatt and Locarno)
from where we can radiate on short rail trips and walks to see the
scenery, geology and wildlife. Although mountainous, we won't be
staying anywhere higher than Denver, but in lovely Swiss car-free
villages and medieval towns. Nevertheless, it will be cool on the
mountaintops, but sunny, we hope!
BOOKINGS ARE
OPEN!
DOWNLOAD BROCHURE HERE (4.7Mb pdf)
TOUR INFORMATION
The Study Tour runs from Saturday May
22nd to Saturday June 5th, 2010. The fee of £2500
(£2230 if joining in Zürich) includes return flight from Manchester
to Zürich, first class Swiss pass for all travel by rail, boat and
bus services, Glacier Express supplement, seat reservations on main
Swiss internal rail journeys, 14 nights B&B in twin/double
rooms en suite. Insurance, other meals, gratuities, additional
supplements for some mountain railways and cable cars (not booked
in advance because of possible weather limitations), and any
optional entrance fees are not included.
Single rooms are available for a supplement of £180.
Note that your booking through Ffestiniog Travel
has the protection of the fully bonded travel agency.
Places are limited on this study tour so you are advised not to
delay in making a deposit to secure yours!
Hotel web sites:
Luzern www.cascada.ch
Zermatt www.hotelsimi.ch
Wengen www.silberhorn.ch
Locarno www.hotelmontaldi.ch
All travel arrangements made by Ffestiniog Travel, who will take
payments, issue receipts, tickets, etc., and can recommend travel
insurance if required.
HOW TO BOOK
A £200 deposit per person should be
sent to Ffestiniog Travel, First Floor, Unit 6, Snowdonia
Business Park, Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, LL48 6LD,
UK.
For telephone bookings and enquiries contact Maria Cook on
+44 (0) 1766 772030
(fax +44 (0) 1766 772049).
If you have any special requirements (e.g. vegetarian meals), or
any mobility problems, please let us know.
In addition to our regular customers, we
are pleased to offer this Study Tour to KU Alumni. Contact Jamie Winkelman (1 (785)
864-9780) at the KU Alumni office for suggestions on travel
arrangements.
Note: US participants will need to make their own
travel arrangements to join the tour in Zürich. Ffestiniog Travel
may be able to help with add-on travel in Europe.
Click here for Frequently Asked Questions
Any other questions? Email
me!
THE SWISS ALPS
THE SWISS ALPS have attracted
naturalists and geologists for well over a century, and became the
birthplace of many fundamental concepts in geology, from mountain
building, to glaciations and ice ages. Pioneering research in the
Alps by famous geologists such as Luis Agassiz, Albert Heim, and
Rudolf Trumpy have paved the road to our better understanding of
how oceans are created and closed, mountains formed, and landscapes
sculpted. Switzerland’s location in the heart of the Alpine
chain offers world-class views into a collisional mountain belt,
erosion by rivers and glaciers, and the impact of rugged mountains
and insulated valleys on people and their cultural heritage.
The Alps are the product of the continental collision of the
European and Apulian (African) tectonic plates during which the
Mesozoic Tethys Ocean was subducted and intervening continental and
oceanic fragments incorporated into the edifice of the Alps. The
collisional architecture of the Alps is dominated by great
recumbent folds, or nappes, and gigantic thrust faults that
transported rock masses from south to north, placing African,
Tethyan, and distal European crustal blocks on top of the stable
European continental margin. Thrust up limestone of the European
shelf form the precipitously rising mountains, such as Pilatus or
Santis, along the northern edge of the Alps, whereas the
crystalline basement rocks in the core of the Alps form the famous
peaks Jungfrau, Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and high peaks in the
Penninic Alps.
The Alps are an easily accessible natural classroom to see the
forces of nature at work and display a remarkable richness in
different geological wonders. Over a short distance from north to
south, the Alps exhibit one of the classic flexural foreland
basins, the thrust-up passive continental margin of Europe and its
crystalline underbelly in the Helvetic Nappes and External Basement
Massifs, the high-grade metamorphic core of the Alps, the mangled
remnants of the former ocean separating the two continents, and the
overthrust African crust forming the roof of the Alps. The
collisional architecture of the Alps has been studied for well over
100 years, helping pioneer many important concepts in geology, and
still today influences our thinking of how continents
collide.
We start our study tour in the delightful mediaeval city of Luzern.
Here, as well as exploring the old town, with its city wall and
wooden bridges, we can visit the glacier garden. Luzern sits
adjacent to the zone of Helvetic Nappes – a pile of huge,
overthrust folds of limestone. We hope to have a day excursion to
Rigi (a mountain made famous by the artist Turner). We travel by
boat to Vitznau, then cog railway up Rigi. We have a choice of
return journeys: by cog railway to Arth, then train to Luzern, or
cable car to Weggis and train or boat back to Luzern. Another day
excursion is to Mt Pilatus, which shows this folding beautifully.
We travel by boat to Alpnachstad, then the world’s steepest
cog railway to Pilatus. We can return same way or by cable
car.
To reach our next destination we take the train through the core of
the Alpine massifs to Andermatt, and then the famous Glacier
Express to Zermatt. This idyllic town sits at the foot of one of
the most majestic Apine mountains: the Matterhorn. We have plenty
of time here to take the railway up to Görnergrat for views of the
spectacular glacier, the Matterhorn, Monte Rosa, and gain an
understanding for the geological processes which shaped this
magnificent scenery. Depending on the state of the trails, we can
do a variety of walks and return the rest of the way back to
Zermatt by train. We also hope to take the cable car and gentle
hike to Schwarzsee, beneath the towering Matterhorn, to see another
set of geological features and different views of the
mountains.
Leaving Zermatt on Saturday morning, we take the scenic route over
the Lötschberg Pass, down to the shores of the Thuner See, then up
the Lauterbrunnen Valley to Wengen, where we arrive in the
afternoon. Wengen is the quintessential Alpine village nestled in
meadows among some of the highest peaks of the central Alps. Form
here we can take walks and also the train through the Eiger, with
views of its dramatic north face, to Europe’s highest railway
station at Jungfraujoch. Your breath will be taken away as you come
face-to-face with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. We gaze down on
the mighty Aletsch glacier flowing into the Valais. We can visit a
display of ice sculptures, walk across the snowfield to the
Mönchsjoch Hut for a warming lunch and views across the Bernese
Oberland, or just enjoy the amenities of the visitor centre
restaurants and shops.
To reach our final destination on this study tour we take the train
via Domodossola (in Italy) then into the southern, Ticino region of
Switzerland, where we stay at Locarno, situated on a delta on the
shores of Lake Maggiore. We shall take one excursion to see the
beautiful springtime scenery of the Verzasca Valley, and another
day we shall visit the World Heritage Site of Monte San Giorgio,
made famous for its Triassic fossils.
The leaders are professors in the Department of Geology, University
of Kansas, and have extensive knowledge of geology and natural
history of Switzerland. No previous knowledge of these subjects is
assumed.
Question: One concern is
that using trains will involve not only lugging cases around more
(will some sort of transport meet us at the stations and transfer
our baggage?) but we would have to carry around what we would need
each day (boots, rucksacks etc) whereas we have been able to leave
on a bus in the past. Please could you advise?
Answer:
Unlike the UK and the US, Switzerland
has an integrated transport
system. Planes, trains,
buses, boats etc. connect at termini, and Swiss timekeeping is
legendary. Transfer from airport to train, for example, is swift
and easy. All of the hotels are adjacent to the stations (e.g. just
across the square), so there will not be any distance to carry
bags; rolling cases, as most are these days, would be helpful.
Danny and I will be pleased to help anyone who needs assistance
with their cases.
On this tour, we have tried to maximize the length of stay in each
locale while, at the same time, providing a tour which will visit
the diversity of the Swiss Alps. So, we have four centres. The
train journeys between are half-day or more, but there will be no
geological stops during the journeys (we can see much from the
train), so there will be no need to have boots and rucksacks
available during the transfer journeys. We just sit back in our
first-class compartment and sip coffee while enjoying the
views!
Question: Have you been able to think any more about some
sort of study day / briefing in January?
Answer: The brochure is being sent out next week, which I
think is a little late for people to think about coming to a
meeting in early January. However, it might be possible to arrange
a meeting just for those coming on the tour sometime in
March.
Question: Do you know the approximate cost of the mountain
railway supplements, assuming weather allows all such
journeys?
Answer: Ffestiniog have
now supplied some prices for the additional trains. The
Jungfraujoch is the most expensive, but is an absolute must. With
our Swiss Pass we pay CHF 112 for the return journey. The
Gornergrat is CHF 19 one way (depending on the weather we shall
walk some (or all?) of the way back. If weather permits, we might
take the Schynige Platte which is CHF 23 one way or CHF 41 return.
The other ones we might use are all about CHF 5–20; e.g.
Alpnachstad–Pilatus is CHF 16 one way, and if we come down
the other it is CHF 9.50. Overall, if we make all projected
journeys, you might want to budget CHF 250 (about £150) in total
for additional fares.
Question:
Do you have any idea about meal costs
in Switzerland these days?
Answer: Food: one thing
about Swiss food is that it is excellent, and therefore good value.
You can certainly pay high prices if you want to, but there are
innumerable cafés serving great fare to young and old who do not
need silver service. Go to this web site for some comments on food
around Zermatt (just as an example): http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Switzerland/Canton_du_Valais/Zermatt-689741/Restaurants-Zermatt-BR-1.html