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Oberalp
2'044 m
Graubünden / Uri
The Oberalp Pass climbs to 2,044 metres between Andermatt in Uri and Sedrun and Disentis in Graubünden, where you enter a new language region: Romansh-speaking Surselva.
2'044 m
Graubünden / Uri
The Oberalp Pass climbs to 2,044 metres between Andermatt in Uri and Sedrun and Disentis in Graubünden, where you enter a new language region: Romansh-speaking Surselva.
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The Oberalp Pass climbs to 2,044 metres between Andermatt in Uri and Sedrun and Disentis in Graubünden, where you enter a new language region: Romansh-speaking Surselva. It is a high but gentle crossing where road and railway share the same plateau: the Matterhorn Gotthard line runs directly over the summit, and the Glacier Express reaches the highest point of its Zermatt–St. Moritz journey right here. The railway crosses all year round, while the pass road opens only in summer. In winter the road vanishes under metres of snow and the pass becomes a ski area.
But the Oberalp's quiet marvel is what it gives birth to: a short way above the turquoise Oberalpsee lies Lake Toma, the source of the Rhine. And at the summit stands the only lighthouse in the Alps, a replica of the beacon that once stood at Hoek van Holland, where the Rhine flows into the North Sea near Rotterdam. It points down the length of one of Europe's great rivers, marking the start of a journey of some 1,230 kilometres from this Alpine meadow to the sea.
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