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Gletsch with Hotel Glacier du Rhone

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This small seasonal village at 1759 m asl., at the base of the Grimsel and Furka passes, basically consists of a hotel complex, a service station, and a railway station. It was located close to the terminus of the Rhonegletscher in the mid 19th Century, at the maximum of the Little Ice Age. The Hotel Glacier du Rhone (right background), a Grand Hotel of the Belle-Époque of Alpine tourism, has lost much of its importance as the travel habits have changed and the glacier is not visible any more from Gletsch. The railway station seen in the left foreground, however, has been revived.