Corbassière Glacier

Grand Combin with Corbassièregletscher

The Corbassièregletscher (French Glacier de Corbassière ) is a valley glacier on the north side of the Grand Combin in the southwestern Valais Alps, in Switzerland. It is 9.7 km long and covers together with its Tributärgletschern an area of ​​about 16 km ². This makes it the largest glacier in the lower Valais and after the Aletsch Glacier, the Fieschergletscher, the Gorner Glacier and the fifth longest in Switzerland the Unteraargletscher.

The origins of the Corbassièregletscher on the northern slope of the Grand Combin to over 4000 m above sea level. M. At an altitude 3300-3400 m above sea level. M. is a broad, hardly sloping ice surface, which is bounded on the west by the rocky peaks of the Maisons Blanches (up to 3682 m above sea level. M. ). Then (M. 3663 m above. ) Of the glacier flows with a slight bend to the north, flanked by the peaks of Combin de Corbassière ( 3716 m above sea level. M. ) and Petit Combin to the west and by Tournelon Blanc ( 3702 m above sea level. M. ) and Grand Tave ( 3158 m above sea level. M. ) in the east. The glacier ended in 2005 at about 2200 m above sea level. M.

The Corbassièregletscher drained by the Torrent de Corbassière in the Dranse de Bagnes, which flows through the Val de Bagnes the Rhône. Since his high stage during the Little Ice Age in the mid- 19th century, the glacier has retreated by about 1.5 km. On the lateral moraine on the eastern edge of the lower portion of the glacier is the François-Xavier Bagnoud Cabane ( 2645 m above sea level. M., formerly Cabane de Panossiere called ), which is the starting point for climbs and glacier tours in the Grand Combin massif.