The Porchabella Glacier (
Romansh: ''Vadret da Porchabella'') is a 2.5 km long
glacier
A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...
(2005) in the
Albula Range
The Albula Alps are a mountain range in the Alps of eastern Switzerland. They are considered to be part of the Central Eastern Alps, more specifically the Western Rhaetian Alps. They are named after the river Albula. According to AVE (see map), ...
in the canton of
Graubünden in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. In 1973 it had an area of 2.58 km
2.
The glacier lies at the foot of
Piz Kesch
Piz Kesch (German) or Piz d'Es-cha ( Rumantsch) is a peak in the Albula Alps of the Rhaetian Alps in Switzerland. At , it is the highest peak in the Albula Alps and the municipality of Bergün, Grisons.
The first ascent was made 1846 by J. Co ...
and
Piz Val Müra. It gives birth to the river ''Ava da Salect'' which ends in the
Albula.
Human remains
In 1988, the remains of a presumed dairymaid were discovered and completely unearthed in 1992. Only the shoulders and left arm were
mummified
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furthe ...
, although the rest of the skeleton was fully intact. Examination concluded that the remains dated from around 1700, and the woman being around twenty-two at the time of her death.
[ Spindler, Konrad. ''Human Mummies: a Global Survey of Their Status and the Techniques of Conservation''. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1996. 246. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.]
See also
*
List of glaciers in Switzerland
This is a non-exhaustive list of the major glaciers in Switzerland. It contains their surface area, their lengths since the start of measurement and the most current year, their height and their outflow. Most of them are retreating and many wil ...
*
Swiss Alps
The Alps, Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main Physica ...
References
External links
Swiss glacier monitoring network
Glaciers of Graubünden
{{Graubünden-glacier-stub