The Colour Changing Kander River

The Kander River flows in front of the main chalet here at KISC.

The Kander River in Winter

This river is an on-going mystery to our guests since it regularly varies in colour. It changes from blue to brown to green and sometimes even appears colourless.

To explain the colour changes within this river you must follow the river upstream to its source.

The Kander River is sourced from the Kanderfirn glacier. As glaciers migrate they erode the rock beneath pulling fine grained sediment into suspension. This suspended sediment is called natural rock flour.

The Kanderfirn Glacier

The river colour changes depending on the quantity and type of rock flour.

Rivers containing a lot of glacial flour turn the water a milky brown colour, this gets stronger with high precipitation levels.

In conditions where fine silt and clay particles are suspended they absorb all but the blue wavelengths giving the water a strong blue colour.

Often the river appears a turquoise colour when it is full of quartz and feldspar minerals and meeting with larger bodies of water.

If you look out the window at the Kander River today it is a murky brown colour this is due to the ongoing modification work on the river bed. Keep watching KISC ECO BLOG for more information soon.



Avalanche!!

The snow just keeps on coming here in Kandersteg!

Whilst this brings great conditions for Winter Sports it also brings dangers with the potential for avalanches.

Avalanches are a spectacular example of the forces of nature in action and are perhaps the most significant natural hazard in the snow covered mountains surrounding Kandersteg.

There are two kinds of avalanche, loose snow avalanches which start from a single point and slab avlanches which occur when a whole layer of snow breaks away.

Loose snow avalanches are often harmless and do not reach high speeds, however slab avalanches can devistate large areas and can reach speeds of up to 200-300km an hours if the conditions allow.

Slab avalanches can occur by natural means.  If after heavy snowfall the snow layers do not bond together sufficently, weak sections and fractures can form across the snow pack which can grow and grow until the whole layer falls away leading to an avalanche.  These fragile layers can also be transformed into slides by snowsports partcipants.  If they are unfortunate enough to be in the avalanches path this is often enough to bury the person.  In order to ensure safe skiing and snowboarding in resorts teams of engineers are on call to trigger avalanches artificially with the use of explosives.

The timing and location of avalanches are notriously hard to predict, however it is possible to estimate the likelyhood of an avalanche occuring.  Here at KISC we print the local avalanch bulletin daily to ensure all of our guests are equipped with the most up to date information on the conditions in the local area.

For more information on avalanches check out http://www.slf.ch/lawineninfo/index_EN

Recycling Film

Ever wondered what can be recycled and how to use the many recycling centres here in the Chalet at KISC?
Let our staff guide you through the process in this fun packed video.

See if you can spot all the things that get recycled during the film......

Staring:
Caoimhe (IE, House Assistant) as herself
Roman (CH, Summer Staff 2011) as Guest 1
Johan (SE, House Manager) as Guest 2
and Jack (UK, Reception Manager) as himself

Directed and Produced by Su (KR, Autumn Staff 2011)
with special advice and tips from Pol (LU, PR and Marketing Assistant)

Weird Weather

This Autumn Kandersteg has enjoyed (or endured!) particularly warm weather.  With very little rain (with the exception of the flooding in early October) clear bright sunny days, and still very little snow it may be interesting to consider what is really going on with the weather?

Figures published on Tuesday by the Met Office suggest that despite the unusually warm weather 2011 stands at only 11th place on the list of warmest years ever since records began in 1850.

It seems that Switzerland is not alone in having higher than usual temperatures.  Weather in the UK, Russia and American to name just a few have recieved temperature readings a few degrees higher than normal.

So why not the hottest? Experts have pointed to a weather system called La Nina in the pacific that brings cooler water to the surface has pushed down the Global average.

But what is really worrying about this is despite a cooler year, the data relesed today confirms an overall warming trend with 9 of the warmest years on record occuring since the year 2000, and each sucessive decde since 1950 has been warmer than the last.

I think I'd rather ski than surf in the Winter.

 

KISC Eco Blog

Our environment is unique. We have spectacular alpine surroundings, a campsite full of wildlife and a chalet where we are constantly trying to minimise our impact on the environment. The environment is part of everything at KISC!

This is our new Eco-blog where we will keep you up to date with everything eco at KISC.  Stay tuned for updates in the coming days of how we are trying "to leave the world a little better than we found it."