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The Trümmelbach Falls in Switzerland are a series of ten glacier-fed waterfalls inside the mountain made accessible by a tunnel-funicular, built in 1913, with stairs, and illumination.
With its ten glacier waterfalls inside the mountain, made accessible by a tunnel lift, the Trümmelbach Falls are unique in Europe.
The lowest falls were made accessible by stairs and bridges from 1877 to 1886. The tunnel lift, technically a funicular with a counterweight, was built in 1913, together with the access to the top 3 falls, the top tunnel staircase with gallery and lookout gallery was completed in 1986. In the winter of 1990, the lower and the upper half of the gorge were connected. In the interior of the mountain, wild rock art and 3 additional falls have become visible. This means that the Trümmelbach Gorge is 600 meters accessible, 10 falls have been developed, and the difference in height from the lowest to the uppermost case is 140 meters. The tunnel lift overcomes around 100 meters in altitude over a length of 105 meters. Its incline is 45 degrees, its capacity is around 40 people, the travel time is 60 seconds, and the hourly capacity is around 500 people. The energy-saving counterweight corresponds to the weight of the cabin with around 15 people. The cabin walls and roof are made of glass, built in 1983, the third installation since 1913.
400 meters of galleries, 5 tunnels, 30 meters of bridges, 16 floodlights, 32 spotlights. All buildings were designed in such a way that they only show a minimal interference with the immediate surroundings or remain completely invisible: the more cautious the human intervention, the more effective the image of nature. The electric spotlights only illuminate walking areas, rock paintings and water.
The amount of water fluctuates enormously: from December to March only a trickle flows under rigid ice sheets. After nights of frost in April and October, a few dozen liters per second pour out - but during the snowmelt from April to June, then in the period when the glacier melts from June to September and after land and thunderstorm rain, up to 20,000 liters of water per second can flow through the rocks: the Trümmelbach becomes a river.
The rock through which the Trümmelbach has eaten consists of thick limestone banks. These were deposited as lime sludge in a shallow sea, which had spread over the entire European continent 140 million years ago, in the Upper Jurassic period. 100 million years later, the area of the Bernese Oberland was incorporated into the mountain formation of the Alps and unfolded. Wrinkles and flow structures are still clearly visible today on the walls polished by Trümmelbach and testify to the enormous pressure that this layer package was exposed to during the mountain formation.
The name "Trümmelbach" does not describe an optical impression, as is usual with waterfalls, but an acoustic one: Trümmelbach = drum stream.
The Trümmelbach is listed in the "Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments of National Importance" and the Michelin Guide has rated the extraordinary natural spectacle with three stars.
This was filmed June 15, 2015 PXD7mtsjuIQ |