Water in figures

The European watershed is located at the top of the Grimsel Pass. The water flows here either through the Aare and Rhine rivers into the North Sea or through the Rhone into the Mediterranean. Or to put it another way: we could pee in two seas at the same time here. Could, because peeing in the wild is prohibited in Switzerland.

Glacier erosion has created three new lakes: The Triftsee, the Gaulisee and the glacier lake at the lower Grindelwald glacier. Others will (unfortunately) be added.

Grimselsee, Oberaarsee, Räterichsbodensee, Gelmersee, Totensee, Mattenalpsee, Trübtsee and Engstlensee are the names of the eight reservoirs owned by Kraftwerke Oberhasli AG.

With a length of around 20 kilometres, the large Aletsch Glacier is the largest ice flow in the Alps.

The Lauterbunnen Valley is the valley of 72 waterfalls.

At 288 kilometres, the Aare is the longest river that runs entirely through Switzerland. It rises as a mountain stream from the two Aar glaciers (Upper and Lower Aar glaciers) and flows into the Rhine as a large river at Koblenz.

At 297 metres, the Staubbach Waterfall is the highest free-falling waterfall in Switzerland. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe even dedicated a poem to it.

At 417 metres, the Mürrenbach Waterfall is the highest waterfall in Switzerland.

At Konkordiaplatz, the Aletsch Glacier has an ice thickness of around 800 metres.

The Trümmelbach alone drains the huge glacier walls of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. On peak days, up to 20,000 litres of water per second flow through the Trümmelbach Gorge.

The eight reservoirs of Kraftwerke Oberhasli AG can store 195 million cubic metres of water. This energy storage corresponds to the same amount of water that almost four million Swiss inhabitants use in their own households every year. Or 975 million bathtubs filled to the brim.

Another insane figure. The Aletsch Glacier weighs 10 billion tonnes, which is equivalent to the weight of around 55 million jumbo jets.