UKC

News from Switzerland: Crucial hurdles have been overcome in law to allow raising of the dam of the Grimselsee by 23m.

The approval process will continue. Article here in German:

https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/parlament-setzt-zeichen-so-schnell-kann-die...

So will that flood the access to Eldorado, or am I thinking of another dam? Vieux Emosson was raised by a similar amount for a pump storage scheme which is now up and running. There's apparently a proposal to raise the main Emosson now.......

Not sure to what extent Eldorado would be affected...was only there once to have a look, and the crag was far enough up the hill from the path that I couldn't be bothered to walk up for a closer look!

Well the crag is quite a bit higher than the path (from memory). But the path itself rises and falls. I think it's also the access for the Lauteraar hut etc, so would affect more than just Eldo climbers were it to be flooded. I can't see your link at the moment as I'm not at home, so just speculating really...

The link does not contain any useful cartography anyway...

If they do this in anything even vaguely approximating a Swiss way then I'd say the path will be re-engineered, if necessary, long before the water height is raised.

I have done three of the full length routes on Eldorado and can confirm that none including the descent is going to be affected by a 100' rise in lake level whenever that is achieved. The problem  will be access during the construction period,, which if I heard the commentator aright will last five years. The actual approach is complicated from the Hospiz and gets onto the main path though a crucial tunnel. It will depend if they are cooperative and create a bypass or not. The routes on the downstream lake, Marée, 5 pitches like Les Pieds et les Mains or Science Friction which start about 4' above lake level will certainly be out, as well as the nice little crack pitch above the tunnel. What may be possible is to approach from the other side of the Grimsel lake which is how I think we did  our last day of making a complete ski tour of the Bernese Oberland: but my diary is vague about th glorious 5mile run down the Oberaargletscher to the dam. 

So nil desperandum.

a new dam is already under construction as the old one is in a bad state... ( hopefully not too bad) .  there is an alternative access to the path leading to eldorado dome avoiding the dam. you start a little down the valley from the construction site, a path leeds up to the tunnel.   from memory, i 'd say that most if not all of the approach path is 25 m or more above the waterlevel. 

Some great videos on the current building of the replacement dam building in the below link. Also from memory, but checking the online swiss topo maps too, not all of the path is greater than 25m above the current max water level. The way beyond Eldorado to the hut would perhaps be most affected.

https://www.grimselstrom.ch/ausbauvorhaben/zukunft/dossier-for-the-replacem...

yes,didn't think about that...after eldo the path goes down to the lake level. that section would certainly be affected