A blue channel cuts through pale glacier ice, and two small figures move within it. David Carlier’s photographs of Claude-Alain Gailland and Gilles Janin on the Aletsch Glacier are striking because they reveal a landscape that ordinary scenic views rarely show.
A close view of moving water and ice
The archive identifies the activity as hydrospeeding: travelling in water with a small flotation board. Here it appears within a specialist glacier expedition. The photographs should not be treated as an invitation to enter a meltwater channel or as a guide to choosing a route.
At close range, the camera picks out colour, surface texture and the participant’s equipment. Pull back, and those details become part of a much larger pattern: an irregular line of water crossing the ice.
The wide photograph changes the story
The broad view is worth lingering over. It places the dramatic close-ups within a glacier environment and makes the people look small again. The photograph of the pair carrying their boards also adds something the action shots cannot: a glimpse of the movement between photographed moments.
The original feature included broad claims about distance, records and who might be qualified to attempt such a trip. Those claims are not necessary to appreciate the images and are not established by the gallery itself. This remains a record of a particular expedition, with hazards that a beautiful frame cannot measure.
For a different glacier perspective, explore the Ruth Glacier feature. For another specialist encounter with high-altitude ice, see Will Gadd on Kilimanjaro.
Following a water channel rather than sliding over an entire glacier
Claude-Alain Gailland and Gilles Janin’s Aletsch project used riverboarding equipment in a glacial setting. The photographs by David Carlier give the activity its clearest context: the athletes occupy a narrow part of a much larger ice landscape. Describing it simply as sliding down a glacier loses the importance of the water channel in their route.
The original account identifies Gailland as a mountain guide and Janin as a canyon specialist. Those backgrounds explain why the story concerns a specialist undertaking rather than a newly accessible summer pastime. Its reported seven-mile distance belongs to that expedition account, not to an established recreational course. The photographs preserve the athletes’ movement and the surrounding ice without needing speculative descriptions of a “tidal wave” as though one was observed during the shoot.
Sources, photography and further reading
Original feature and image attributions:
- David Carlier / Caters News
- wherecoolthingshappen.com
- LifeBuzz
- The Top 15 Ski Resorts in Switzerland
- Amazing Landscapes and All Year Round Activities at Oeschinen Lake, Switzerland
- Amazing Drone Photo of Nine Mountain Climbers atop a Swiss Mountain Peak
- See That Tiny Place In The Mountains? It’s Awesome But You Probably Don’t Want To Go There.
- Breathtaking Sphinx Observatory at Swiss Alps
- The World's Steepest Cogwheel Railway at Mount Pilatus
- the Ruth Glacier feature
- Will Gadd on Kilimanjaro
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