Rufibach cleft, Vorderer Zinggenstock, Zinggenstöcke, Oberaar lake area, Guttannen, Interlaken-Oberhasli, Bern, Switzerlandi

Regional Level Types
Rufibach cleft	Cleft
Vorderer Zinggenstock	Mountain
Zinggenstöcke	Group ofMountains
Oberaar lake area	Area
Guttannen	Municipality
Interlaken-Oberhasli	Administrative District
Bern	Canton
Switzerland	Country

A huge cleft system, discovered in 1966 by the "Strahler" Ernst Rufibach. Located on the north slope, at around 2,650 m above sea level.

According to Artl & Bolliger (2020) the Swiss coordinates are 662.980/156.420.

[Copied from the caption ofhttps://www.mindat.org/photo-1362418.html :] The brothers Hans and Ernst Rufibach discovered and opened in late summer 1966, on the north slope of the Vorderer Zinggenstock, at about 2650 m, a promising alpine cleft. This turned out to be one of the largest Swiss clefts, going into the bedrock to 33 m. Maximum width 6 m, height 3 m. With the help of family and friends, colleague 'strahlers' from Guttannen, they excavated the cleft over a period of nearly 2 decades, producing over 4 tons of predominantly smoky quartz, with beautiful gwindels, but also rock crystal and some faden-quartz, with associated abundant pink fluorite, minor adularia and calcite, and rare pyrite and even phenakite, enough to fill two local museums in Guttannen which were actually created accordingly by the family Rufibach, 'Kristallmuseum Guttannen' and 'Museum Kristella', both of which today (2024) unfortunately no longer exist. The story of the excavation is one of joy (at the point of discovery and initial bringing home of beautiful specimens); strenuous labor (the cleft was mainly ice-filled and a constant stream of water from inside was a problem); risk (the granite roof plates were separated from each other by ice veins, creating a highly unstable situation, where wooden support beams were needed and placed between roof and bottom); frustration (many attempted and completed thefts from the cleft despite the construction of wooden and steel doors and locks, and several court sessions thereafter); and finally disaster, when in 1971, during the recovery of a large and heavy specimen down the steep bedrock, the workers tragically got caught in a rock avalanche, killing 5: Hans Rufibach, Sr., his twin sons Andreas and Alfred, and their befriended couple E. and L. Zeige. An extensive account of all the excitement and hardship is written down by Ernst Rufibach in his privately published booklet 'Freuden und Leiden im Leben eines Strahlers und Bergführers', p. 28-63.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References