SION, SWITZERLAND – The bodies of two climbers, a woman from Fribourg and a Belgian man who lives in Switzerland, were found early Tuesday on the Weisshorn.
The pair went missing 16 September after leaving the Mountet hut at 04:30 to climb the peak. Rescue teams have been searching for them since their disappearance was announced Sunday 18 September.
Their bodies were spotted during a helicopter search, on the north face of the peak. The search had been temporarily stopped due to bad weather, including fog. They had fallen 100-150 metres, below the Moming peak, and the bodies were partly covered with snow.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Two climbers, whose bodies have not yet been identified, died while climbing the dent d’Hérens in canton Valais Wednesday 24 August, bringing to six the number of people who have died in mountain accidents in the Swiss Alps in the past week.
The pair were climbing the peak at 09:45, at 4,050 metres, say canton Valais police, when for unknown reasons they fell 400 metres to their deaths. The pair were roped together.
Italian dies on Matterhorn late Sunday afternoon
Update 11:50 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The past four days have taken a high toll in deaths and injuries in Switzerland: a well-known wine writer was murdered by her former companion who then committed suicide early Friday, three mountain climbers lost their lives in falls and four youths on a joyride are in serious condition after the car they stole rolled several times.
Murder victim and ex known in food and wine circles
Barbara Dittus-Meier, 47, former editor of Vinum, the European wine magazine, and a widely respected wine authority in Switzerland, was shot at her home shortly after midnight Friday in Baden, not far from Zurich, by her ex-companion, Rui A, a Portuguese chef and owner of the Pergola restaurant in Bad Zurzach, 43. He then turned the gun on himself. Neighbours alerted the police after hearing several shots. The three daughters of Dituss-Meier, ages 14 to 20, were asleep at the time of the deaths, but were awakened by the shots and they discovered the bodies. (more on editor Ellen Wallace’s wine blog, Among the Vines).
Argovian police had previously received calls for domestic violence; the couple had been together for several years but had recently split up.
Youths steal car, lose control and flip it
Fourth local youths stole a car in Stalenried in canton Valais in the early hours of Sunday 21 August, around 02:00, and headed on the cantonal road for Gspon when the driver lost control of the car on a bend.
It rolled over several times, 150 metres down a sloping pasture, before coming to a stop. All four were taken to hospital with serious injuries: two were flown to the Hopital de l’Ile in Bern and two others were taken by ambulance to Visp.
They are 18, 16, 14 and 13 years old.
Fire destroys new barn at its inauguration
A new building described by canton Vaud police as an “ultra-modern” barn that was to house 160 animals starting next week in Grens, Vaud, caught fire and was destroyed Saturday afternoon at 15:00 during its inauguration.
Several dozen people and about 15 animals were there to celebrate the completion of the barn when it caught fire, for reasons that are not yet known. The building housed more than 800 large rolls of hay and straw, and it went up in flames quickly. The animals were taken to safety and no one was injured. The 160 animals scheduled to winter there are currently up in the Copettes alpage near Givrins.
Separate accidents kill 3 in Swiss Alps
An Italian died on the east face of the Matterhorn at 17:30 Sunday and two climbers died in separate accidents 19 and 20 August, bringing to four the number of people who died in one week while walking or climbing in canton Valais.
Police say the Italian was one of a group of five climbing the Matterhorn/Cervin Sunday 21 August when he fell 500 metres to his death on the east face of the mountain, shortly before the Solvay hut, at 4,030 metres. The group was not roped together. Police are trying to formally identify the climber.
A 43-year-old German man who was climbing the Lagginhorn mountain on his own 19 August fell 50 metres to his death, at 3,600 metres. His family became worried when he hadn’t returned home by 20:30 and they called police. A helicopter search failed to find him during the night but found his body when the search was taken up again Saturday morning.
Two Austrian climbers headed up the south face of the Dent Blanche Saturday morning. As they started down, on the south peak at 4,000 metres, at 09:30, one of them, a 27-year-old man, fell 400 metres to his death, for reasons that are not clear.
A 15-year-old Mauritian tourist lost his life earlier in the week while hiking near Martigny-La Combe.
13 mountain deaths this year, 8 of them in July
Grand Combin accident area, where three fell to their deaths Friday (photo: Valais Police)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Alps are taking a heavy toll on climbers this year, with 13 deaths to date, 8 of them in July alone. But Friday 15 July was a particularly lethal day, with five deaths in three separate accidents, coming just a day after a 61-year-old Scottish tourist lost his life when he slipped and fell 200 metres down a couloir near Verbier.
The first fatal accident Friday occurred at 10:00 in the Grand Combins area. Three climbers, equipped with crampons and ice axes, left Valsorey at 05:00 to climb the slopes leading to the Meitin glacier.
At 10:00 they were a few metres from the pass at the foot of the Combin de Valsorey, altitude 3,700 metres, that leads to the Plateau du couloir when one of the climbers appears to have fallen, taking the two other climbers who were roped to him as he fell.
The three fell several hundred metres. A helicopter carried the three bodies down and police are now trying to identify them.
Grand Combin (photo: Valais Police)
A second accident occurred near Saas Grund at 12:10 when a group of seven Germans was climbing the Lagginhorn. They were not roped together.
About 100 metres short of the summit, 3,850 metres, one of them lost his balance and fell several hundred metres to his death.
In a third accident near Arolla, two climbers were rappeling down from the Petit Mt Collon.
The first made the descent without any trouble, but when his companion started down, the rope attached to the rock face gave way and the climber fell 20 metres and died at the scene of the accident.
Formal identification is underway for the Saas Grund and Arolla fatalities.
Friday was a beautiful, sunny day in the mountains, with highs of 25C on the plain.
Tour de Romandie finishes with glorious weather as partner
Weather forecast: brief rain, spot of frost, then warmer and sunny again
Sunny finish for Tour de Romandie winner (photo ©2011 Samuel Jacquet, flickr.com/photos/sam-s-place/with/5681965676/ )
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The rain is finally falling Tuesday morning 3 May, giving a reprieve after the spectacularly dry April in the Lake Geneva region, but weather forecasters warn it will be shortlived: expect showers to end late Tuesday, with only occasional rain along mountain ridges in the next two days. Some areas will be hit by ground frost Thursday, then temperatures will climb to highs of 24-25C with sunshine for the weekend.
Australian cyclist wins Tour, with Brit taking the day in Geneva
The Tour de Romandie finished in Geneva Sunday in a burst of fine weather, with Australian Cadel Evans taking the title for the second time, while British cyclist Ben Swift won Sunday’s leg of the race.
Lausanne’s popular 10 and 20-km runs celebrated their 30th anniversary Saturday. The evening run pulled in an estimated crowd of 18,000 participants. One of the corporate groups that took part did, not surprisingly, unusually well: the Lausanne-based governing body of athletics on the continent, European Athletics, sent a team of seven, who “finished high in the rankings”.
Army continues to fight Visp fire
Visp, Valais forest fire 1 May (click on imge to view larger)
The forest fire in Visp in canton Valais, at the edge of a vast Alpine forest area that stretches to Zermatt and beyond, was still smoldering Sunday 1 May, despite continual flyovers by helicopters dumping buckets of water on embers.
The army Monday morning sent in a Super Puma to step up the fight against the fire, after unrolling 2,700 metres of hosepipe to help local firefighters and dumping 400 tons of water on the area by the end of the week. The army also kept traffic and the curious moving Sunday, on the busy stretch of road, but by Tuesday the army presence was down from 120 soldiers to 70 in the area.
The forest rises steeply behind the body shop on the cantonal highway where the fire started, and much of the area cannot be easily accessed on foot.
The fire was caught early enough to prevent total destruction to the forest, but the full damage is likely to be apparent only later in the year, as some of the trees and plant life die off due to damage.
Authorities are concerned that the fire will be sparked anew by the extremely dry conditions.
Woman in critical condition after 200 metre fall
Update 11:20 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Erhard Loretan, one of Switzerland’s most famous climbers who achieved world fame as one of the few people to climb 14 of the world’s peaks over 8,000 metres, died Thursday 28 April in a fall in canton Valais. He captured the world’s imagination in 1986 when he made a 40-hour ascent of Mount Everest at night, using no oxygen. He took 13 years, from 1982-95, to climb the 14 tallest peaks.
The mountain guide, whose 52nd birthday was Thursday, was leading a 38-year-old Bern woman on a climb in upper Valais, near the cantonal border with Bern, when the roped pair fell as they were climbing a ridge at 3,800 metres, about noon Thursday. Another climbing party spotted the traces of the fall and called 144 soon after, at 12:14, say Valais police.
The two were climbing in the Fieschertal area and had reached Gruuenegghorn, where they left their skis. They then climbed the summit ridge in the direction of Gruenhorn when, for reasons that are not yet clear, the roped pair fell 200 metres on the northwest face.
A helicopter rescue was not possible due to fog in the area, and two rescue teams climbed to the spot only to discover the man’s body and the woman in a critical state. Loretan’s body was identified only late Thursday. The woman was carried out and then taken by helicopter to a hospital.
TSR in March 2011 filmed an interview (French) with Loretan and fellow climber Andre Georges, about the work, challenge and joy of being climbing pioneers.
Snow conditions, Spring skiing deals, this season’s improvements, Aminona resort, upcoming events
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Winter is officially behind us, clocks spring forward this weekend, and the snow is gone from the lower slopes, so this will be GenevaLunch’s final weekend snow and winter sports report for 2010-2011 season.
There is still time to ski and even sled, so snow fans have little to worry about, but you’ll need to check first to see where the snow is. Be sure to take along the sun cream!
Weather forecast
Snowpark at Corvatsch, St Moritz, 25 February 2011
Highs on the plain and at low altitudes, including Geneva, of 18-20C Saturday, with sunshine, but clouds building in the afternoon. Expect mountain highs of 16C Sunday and snow Sunday afternoon down to 1,700-1,900 metres.
Resorts closing, but special offers in some that stay open
This is the final weekend of skiing for most resorts at lower altitudes. This includes the Jura, where there is still, happily, enough snow for a few final downhill runs. Shirley Curran reports:
“Our Jura ski season closes Sunday, 27 March, but it is still possible to ski at Crozet and Lelex. Indeed, in the middle of the week, the run right down to Lelex was still in operation, though the cover down there is thin. Eight lifts will be running on Saturday and Sunday but it is a good idea to get up there early as the snow becomes very soft in the afternoon. You will need suncream too. The season is already over at the Col de la Faucille.”
MySwitzerland, the national tourism office, has a list of resorts that remain open in April, with special spring skiing deals as well as a list of the glacier resorts, some of which offer summer skiing later on.
GenevaLunch’s series, Swiss dream ski week, will be completed Sunday 27 March with the final article, on Zermatt, the slopes and the town. The report on Davos published 25 March points out that great skiing and snowboarding is available there until the end of April.
Avalanche alerts, for those going off-piste or doing back country skiing: moderate / level 2 on the northern flank of the Alps, but high / level 3 on the southern side, from lower Valais to the Goms. Details in the national daily avalanche bulletin, in English.
Looking back, changes during the 2010-2011 ski season
Snow machines are everywhere
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 59-year-old man from canton Vaud, walking in the woods near the mountain village of St Luc in canton Valais, died Thursday 17 March after sliding 100 metres. He was walking with his wife at 15:45 in the hamlet of La Barma when he stepped on a sheet of ice and slipped, then slid the length of a cut in the mountainside. He died at the scene of the accident.
Rescue column searching avalanche, Bourg-St-Pierre
Geneva and Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Four people lost their lives in three separate accidents in the Swiss Alps in 48 hours.
Two of them died Sunday 13 March in an avalanche, bringing to five the number of people who have died in avalanches in the past 10 days in the region, four of them since Saturday.
A 43-year-old Valais man and his 11-year-old son died in an avalanche in Bourg-St-Pierre, not far from Verbier, late Sunday.
A German man who was climbing in snowshoes to the Wildstubel near Leukerbad died Saturday evening after he ran into health problems and was unable to reach safety.
And a Swiss man, age 38, died Monday as he was driving a van up the main road to the Simplon Pass, when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed head-on into a truck driven by a 37-year-old Slovakian man. The truck driver is in serious condition.
Father and son caught by avalanche on dis-used ski slope
Jura early morning skiing, before the fog disappears below, to sit over Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A short message to wish you all well outdoors this weekend, because the weather and a whiff of fresh snow are combining to offer good times in the Alps! Friday morning saw lower altitude Lake Geneva towns sitting in gloomy gray weather, with clearer weather if not sunny above, in the Jura.
Slopes, snow conditions: generally good throughout Switzerland, although more fresh snow is still needed everywhere. Limited snow park and off-piste skiing. There have been yet more serious accidents on the slopes this week, including two where children fell off skilifts. Icy slopes continue to cause accidents: slow down.
Shirley Curran reports from the Jura: Both the Col de la Faucille and the Crozet-Lélex resorts are now operating, though the cover is thin at La Faucille. We have had snow and rain this week and the slopes
are very busy with two French holiday regions having their ski week at once, and the Swiss schools. However, it is again sunny above Geneva’s cloud layer. The excellent grooming continues on the slopes, so that the good conditions continue.
Weather forecast: highs of 7-9C Saturday, with sunny to lightly overcast skies in western Switzerland, including resorts in canton Valais. Rain moving in Sunday, with the snow line falling to 800 metres, and temperatures 5-7C, slightly colder at altitude.
Roads: keep in mind that canton Geneva drivers will be packing the roads Sunday afternoon and evening, as their school holidays end. Check TSR and the federal truck traffic site for live updates on accidents, heavy traffic patches and weather conditions, particularly for mountain areas and main autoroute junctions.
We’re cutting short our report this weekend, with a promise to bring you some of the best of Swiss skiing throughout next week! Off to the pistes now.
GPS, cell phones, Alpine right of way – how to get where you’re going, trouble-free
Furka pass, Switzerland
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Friday 18 February is the start of a busy time on mountain roads in Switzerland, the peak time for school holidays and families heading for the mountains.
For those unfamiliar with mountain roads, or the rest of us who can always use a refresher, here are the basics, from canton Vaud:
- On steep roads, do not brake excessively because this can cause brakes to overheat and quit working. Stop and turn off the car for a few minutes when you can, to let it cool down.
- If the road is too narrow for cars in both directions to pass, the car coming down the hill should stop to give the right of way to the car coming up the hill. If there still is not room the car coming down is expected to back up. Exception: if the car coming up is clearly close to a place where there is room to pull over, it should do so.
- Groups of vehicles, such as several trucks, have priority over individual cars. Trucks and buses have priority over cars. Buses have priority over trucks.
- On narrow passes/tunnels in the mountains, you must be able to stop half the way of the distance that is visible (see sketch below).
- Narrow mountain postal roads: follow the instructions of the public transport driver or employee, if these are given.
- This is not a rule, but common mountain courtesy, worth respecting: if you are driving more slowly than the local drivers who know the roads, pull over when you can, and let them pass. Many mountain roads have no passing zones for several kilometres. This applies to going up or going down: you can discourage other drivers from passing imprudently.
Below: be sure you can stop halfway to your visible distance point. More illustrations: Vaud highway department
What the Swiss mean when they say distracted driving
Police in some cantons are stricter than in others (I once heard a police officer from another canton ask jokingly “they have police in Valais?”). The same basic rules of the road apply in Switzerland, and these cover “distracted driving”. Some 10,000 drivers lost their licenses in Switzerland in 2010 for distracted driving, mainly for using GPS navigation systems and cell phones.
The rules says that a driver must give his or her attention to the road and avoid doing anything that makes it more difficult to drive the vehicle. Children fighting in the back seat come to mind, but the law is more specific: the driver’s attention “must not be distracted, in particular, by any sound reproduction system or any information or communication system”.
Even more specifically: the fine for using a telephone without a hands-free system is CHF100.
GenevaLunch asked Jean-Christophe Sauterel of Canton Vaud Police to clarify what the rules mean, since GPS and cell phone use is not outlawed and cars have CD players. “It’s up to the police to decide, but the determining factor is whether or not the driver is distracted. If he’s weaving, crossing the line, that’s a sign he’s distracted.”
The police do not decide if a license will be lifted, although they have the right to remove it pending a decision: the Service de Navigation, or cantonal vehicle service, makes that decision, based on the police officer’s report.
“If you’re driving with earphones or the music so loud you don’t hear emergency vehicles, that’s distracted driving,” he says. What about eating a picnic lunch while you’re driving?
“We don’t want to keep people from eating or drinking in the car if they want to,” he laughs. “Well, unless it’s alcohol, of course! But the real question is: is the driver distracted.”
Other drivers sometimes denounce to the police a driver who worries them because of erratic driving, and the police may take these observations into consideration.
If you’re eating a sandwich and reading instructions for reaching your chalet and you answer your cell phone, all while trying to follow the GPS, and your speed shifts from 120kph to 60 and back up to 90, expect trouble.
Fiesch skier dies 2 metres off the piste
Woman dies after Champéry fall, man in Engadine killed by stalactite, ski trekker caught by avalanche
Champery is one of 12 ski resorts that are part of the Portes du Soleil ski region on the Swiss-French border in canton Valais
Update 21:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The number of accidents on mountains in the Swiss and French Alps is climbing, with icy slopes and warmer conditions possibly playing a role. This weekend in Switzerland four people lost their lives doing mountain sports: all were Swiss with alpine sports experience.
Monday 7 February a Bern man, 50, died in Fiesch, in the Goms/Conches valley in upper canton Valais, for reasons that are not clear, say police. He was skiing along the edge of the Obere Galvera run at 2,150m altitude when he fell and ended up off-piste, 2m from the edge of the run, where he died.
No further details are available except that he was wearing a helmet. Police have opened an investigation.
A 65-year-old woman from canton Vaud died in hospital after being flown to the Chuv, Vaud university hospitals, in Lausanne Sunday night 6 February following a fall while skiing in Champéry.
The accident occurred on the Pas de Chavanette in Champéry, a 1 km run with a vertical drop of 331 metres, well known for its moguls.
The run was closed to the public but the woman, her son and his female companion slipped under the nets to go down the run.
Pas de Chavanette's steep and rocky stretch: the slope is sometimes called an orange run - more difficult than normal black runs (photo 2007, Ale de Vries / Wikipedia)
The older woman fell and slid several dozen metres, say police. The younger woman also slipped and suffered a broken collarbone. She was hospitalized in Monthey.
Police have opened an investigation into the accident.
Man hit by falling ice after ice-wall climbing
An ice climber died in a freak accident in canton Graubuenden, in the Engadine region, when a stalactite fell on him. The man was sorting out his gear 30 metres below the giant icicle when it detached and pinned him to the ground.
The accident occurred Saturday afternoon, about 14:00, near Sils, at the entrance to Vallon du Fextal. The man had been climbing with two companions. He died from his injuries the following day.
Uri man dies; cell phones didn’t work in mountainous area
A 39-yar-old man died in canton Uri after he and a friend were caught by an avalanche as they came down from the Vorder Schloss near Attinghaussen. He was wearing an avalanche alert system that allowed his friend to find him and partially dig him out.
The friend was unable to call for help because their cell phones couldn’t pick up a signal in the mountainous area. He left his friend behind after failing to revive him, to call for help.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Four people are in depressurization chambers (hyperbar) at the HUG (university hospitals) in Geneva and six others have been treated at hospitals in Martigny and Sion in canton Valais after they were poisoned by carbon monoxide. The 10 adults, children and teenagers were staying in a hut in Ovronnaz. Police, who received a 144 telephone alert, suspect a faulty fire as the cause of the problem. The 10 were airlifted by four helicopters from the scene of the accident.
Samedan / Engadin airport near St Moritz, canton Graubuenden (photo: wikipedia)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Samedan Airport, just 5 km from the resort of St Moritz in canton Graubuenden, will have stricter rules for pilots landing their small planes there after a series of accidents in recent years, including a deadly one Sunday 19 December.
Two men flying in from Zagreb were killed and their plane destroyed at Bever, near the airport, during a difficult landing. Two planes, one from Warsaw and the other from Vienna, crashed in February 2010 after hitting snowbanks near the airstrip, with no injuries in one of the accidents but two deaths and one person injured in the other.
Swiss federal civil aviation (OFAC) authorities say pilots planning to land at Samedan, also known as Engadin Airport, will be given permission only if they have been on an initiation flight to familiarize them with the special conditions at the airport. Samedan sits at 1,707 metres altitude and is the highest airport in Europe. It is nestled among mountains with several high peaks, and landing there is more complicated than in an airport on the plains, OFAC officials note. The pre-flight training requirement goes into effect at the start of the new year.
String of deaths in high mountains in past week
Chamonix, France (GenevaLunch.com) – Two British climbers fell 300 metres to their deaths Monday while climbing the Dent du Géant, a peak that is just short of 4,000 metres, not far from Chamonix, over the border from Switzerland. An investigation into the deaths of the 38-year-old man and 20-year-old woman is trying to determine the cause of death, although, according to the Guardian, falling boulders and avalanches appear to have been ruled out.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two hikers in their thirties were attacked Sunday afternoon by a herd of cows in the Jura, near Reculet in the Crêtes du Jura, at about 1,700 metres.
They were airlifted out by Rega, whose helicopters scared off the animals, several dozen of which encircled the two people.
Some of the animals had their heads lowered, just centimetres from the faces of the two hikers.
The woman was hospitalized at the HUG university hospitals in Geneva with serious facial injuries, but her life is not in danger, according to Rega, whose doctors were lowered to the field once the cows were frightened off. The man was not hospitalized.
Details of the attack and how the couple found themselves in this situation were not immediately clear, says Rega.
Hiking near cows at Crozets, in the Jura (photo: Shirley Curran)
Facing a cow in its pasture: avoid threatening it by staying calm - back away, avert your eyes (photo: Shirley Curran)
It’s very unusual for cows to attack hikers, reports the air rescue company, which performed more than 14,000 rescues in 2009, a large number of them mountain rescues.
The number of such incidents has grown, however, since changes were made in recent years to the way cows are raised, and stricter measures were adopted to protect the animals’ natural environment.
This is the season when cows and young calves are out in the pastures, as well as bulls.
Some of their grazing land crosses hiking trails.
Rega’s June issue of its monthly magazine offers several useful articles for anyone planning mountain walks, including tips for hikers who come across animals:
- stay calm
- do not leave the hiking trails
- never touch a young calf
- keep a respectful distance from the animals: 20-50 metres minimum
- watch out for menacing signs: head lowered, hoof scratching the dirt
- do not look the animals in the eye
- don’t wave a stick at them and keep your dog on a leash
- do not turn your back to them.
If despite this you are attacked:
- take your dog off its leash
- hit the cow hard on the muzzle with a stick
- remain calm and call Rega: 1414
Glacier Patrol 2010 finish line in Verbier: you have to be fit to run with your skis at this point (photo 2010, PdG)
Verbier, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A mere 5 hours, 52 minutes and 22 seconds to ski from Zermatt to Verbier: the daunting Glacier Patrol run across the top of the Swiss Alps saw 20 minutes sliced off the old record Saturday 24 April. The previous record was set in 2006 by a French-Italian team.
The winning men’s team of Florent Troillet, Martin Anthamatten and Yannick Ecoeur from canton Valais enthused about the excellent conditions when they finished the race: they were in form, the snow was hard and fast, and they were never cold.
Troillet’s sister Marie was part of the winning women’s team, which finished in 7 h 41’18”, also a record, by 12 minutes.
The race has its origins in the second world war, when the Swiss military were preparing to move fast in case of invasion. The 2010 race had more than 1,500 skiers racing in teams of three.
Background, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Glacier Patrol. Le Matin (Fre), TSR (Fre)
Dawn among the peaks near Zermatt for the Glacier Patrol 2010 (photo ©2010 Juerg Kaufmann/PdG 2010)
Heading up, Glacier Patrol 2010, Swiss mountain race from Zermatt to Verbier (photo 2010, PdG)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A woman from Versonnex, Pays de Gex in France, age 69, died Monday 19 April while climbing the Salève near Geneva, and her 71-year-old mountain-climbing companion is hospitalized with fractures, the Tribune de Geneve reports. The two experienced climbers were roped together, but for reasons that are not yet clear the woman fell 50 metres.
A 34-year-old British woman who lives in France was killed Sunday near Zermatt when she was caught by an avalanche. She was part of a group of four people who were ski touring with a guide when the avalanche struck.
by Peter Brodbeck and Ellen Wallace
Chateau d'Oex 2010 (photo: ©2010 Peter Brodbeck)
Richard Ashford, Emma Hurst, Chateau d'Oex 2010 (photo: ©2010 Peter Brodbeck)
Collection of photos from the Chateau d’Oex balloon festival, GenevaLunch album by Peter Brodbeck and Josh Fassbind
Chateau d’Oex, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A sky filled with colourful giant hot-air balloons against a backdrop of wintry Swiss Alpine peaks is “simply magical”, says balloonist Richard Ashford. It can be improved on only by being in one of the balloons, at the height, so to speak, of the party.
Ashford, when asked about his favourite ballooning moments, says, “If I had to narrow the choice, I’d say flying over mountain tops on a sunny day with a 360-degree view is hard to beat. The silence is amazing, aside from the occasional burn to keep the balloon at a certain height, and everything below looks like a toy town.”
The Chateau d’Oex Balloon Festival
Richard Ashford and Emma Hurst are British, the pilot/owner and co-pilot of one of the balloons that participated in the 2010 Chateau d’Oex balloon event, which ended Sunday 31 January. They say there is nothing quite like it. “Chateau-d’Oex is a special event. The whole town is behind ballooning. It has the balloon museum with the Breitling Orbiter, shops hang model balloons in their stores and everyone and everything is about ballooning.” And, for the scores of balloonists, enthusiasts and the public, “there is also a whole night scene happening with parties and events and street music. It is very well organized and attracts the best from around the world.”
Chateau d'Oex 2010 (photo: ©2010 Josh Fassbind)
Balloonists who travel the world attending events like this tend to find old friends. “Yes, ballooning is relatively small, but it is part of the fun of the sport. We generally know each other and it is through this network that we often get invited to different events.” It is a very social sport, he adds. “We are a close-knit circle of enthusiasts worldwide, which creates a level of camaraderie. We’re like a big family, and this in itself makes it all worthwhile.”
Ashford says he has been ballooning for about 20 years. “It all started by chance when I unexpectedly came across a balloon landing in a field. I went to the balloon, helped the owner, and was immediately hooked.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – It is hard to find a dry spot in Switzerland Wednesday 30 December, with the country soaked to the bones by a warm front from the southwest that has raised temperatures 7-10 C above normal for this time of the year. Aargau in the north has been worst hit, with 32.7 litres of rain per square metre in two hours.
Title: Sheep come back from the Alps
Location: Champery, Valais
Link out: Click here
Description: Sheep come down from the summer alpine pastures
Start Time: 11:30
Date: 10 Oct 2009
Title: Cowbell exchange and autumn market
Location: Romainmôtier
Link out: Click here
Description: Autumn fair, cows down from summer alpine pastures, with special feature: one of largest cowbell markets around
Start Date: 16 Oct 2009
End Date: 18 Oct 2009
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Highs of 30C throughout most of the region and sunshine on Thursday, MeteoSwiss is promising us. The weather will likely be mixed on Friday and for the first part of the weekend, with intermittent showers then sunshine but cooler temperatures – high of 21C Saturday.
You’ll have to go to 4,500 metres to reach zero degrees.
Click on images to view larger: changeable weather, Valais, Switzerland, 26 August 2009
Butterflies in Swiss Alps, soaking up the sun
Saint Prex, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Summer weather forecasts don’t get much better than this: sunshine for the next five days, highs of 30-32C and night-time lows of 18-20C. Soak it up! And if you don’t like the heat, head for the hills: temperatures are generally about 5-6C cooler at 1,000 metres.
For the heart, better up than down: the Swiss Alps and Lake Geneva
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Researchers at the University of Zurich, in a study of 1.6 million German-speaking Swiss people over a 10-year period, confirm that the risk of having a heart attack or stroke is dramatically lower if you live above 1,000 metres, and that climate is probably a key factor. Previous studies have provided conflicting results, in part because of the mixed populations studied, say authors David Faeh, Felix Gutzwiller and Matthias Bopp for the Swiss National Study Cohort Group.
The people with the lowest risk are those born at high altitude who continue to live there, their study shows.
The risk of coronary heart disease falls by 22 percent for each 1,000 metres of altitude and the risk of stroke drops by 12 percent per 1,000m. The study included men and women ages 40 to 84, who lived at altitudes ranging from 259 metres to 1960m.
American Heart Association, 28 July 2009
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The summer travel season begins in earnest 30 June and the Swiss federal government has issued its list of roads and dates when travelers can expect heavy traffic.
Les axes routiers et les jours présentant un fort risque de perturbations sont les suivants :
Autoroutes
Heading south
- A1 St Margrethen – Geneva, between Zurich and Bern, between Lausanne and Morges (roadworks), customs at Geneva/Bardonnex
- A2/E35 Basel – Chiasso – Milan: Bâle/Weil am Rhein customs, between the Belchen tunnel and the Wiggertal junction, between Erstfeld before the north end of the Saint Gotthard (see Gotthard below), the Chiasso/Brogeda customs, to the Como/Grandate toll booth
- A3 Basel – Zurich: between Basel/Saint-Louis customs and the Wiese junction
- A13 Sargans – Bellinzona: between entre Nufenen and Hinterrhein (roadworks), to the north entrance of the San Bernardino tunnel
- Ring roads around Bern (A1/A6), Lausanne (A1/A9) and Zurich (A1/A3)
Times when you can expect traffic jams
Fridays between 15:00 and 21:00 and Saturday from 08:00 to 16:00
Dates with particularly heavy traffic
July: 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25
August: 1
Heading north
- A1 Geneva – St. Margrethen: Geneva/Bardonnex customs, betwee entre Morges and Lausanne (roadworks), between Bern and Zurich
- A2/E35 Milan – Chiasso – Basel: from the Como/Grandate toll booth to the Chiasso/Brogeda customs, between Quinto and the south entrance to the Saint-Gothard tunnel, between Reiden and the Härkingen junction, to customs at Basel/Weil am Rhein
- A3 Sargans – Zurich – Basel: between Zurich/Brunau and the end of the autoroute, Basel/Saint-Louis customs
- A4a Zoug – Sihlbrugg: between Baar and the end of the autoroute at Sihlbrugg
- A9 Martigny – Lausanne: between Bex and the Glion tunnel
- A13 Bellinzone – Coire: at the southern entrance to the San Bernardino tunnel, between Hinterrhein and Nufenen (roadworks)
- Ring roads around Bern (A1/A6), Lausanne (A1/A9) and Zurich (A1/A3)
Times when you can expect traffic jams
Fridays 15:00-21:00, Saturdays 10:00-20:00 and Sundays from 13:00 to 20:00
Dates with particularly heavy traffic
July: 11, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26 and 31
August: 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29
September: 5
Saint Gotthard tunnel
Heading south
Tailbacks are likely at the north end of the tunnel on these dates: Friday 3 July from 12:00-24:00, Saturday 4 July 05:00-18:00. The nights of 10-11 and 17-18 and 24-25 July, non-stop from Friday 12:00 to Saturday 18:00. Traffic jams are also possible Saturdays from 08:00-16:00 during August and up to mid-eptember, as well as Sundays in July from 10:00-16:00.
The entrances to the Göschenen, Monday to Thursday during July, noon to 20:00 are also likely to have traffic jams.
Heading north
Traffic jams can be expected at the south entrance to the tunnel these days: Fridays, 10-31 July from 12:00-22:00, 7-14 August from 10:00-23:00, 21 August to 4 September from 13:00-20:00, Saturdays 11-25 July from 10:00-22:00, 1 August and 8 August from 09:00-01:00, 15 August to 5 September, 10:00-21:00, Sundays, 19 July to 6 September, 11:00-21:00.
Traffic jams could occur Saturday 4 July, 10:00-18:00. From mid-July to the end of August, traffic jams can also be expected occasionally afternoons Monday to Thursday, noon to 20:00.
Main roads inside Switzerland and customs stations
Heavier traffic can be expected on the following roads within Switzerland: Spiez-Kandersteg (start of holidays), Gampel-Goppenstein (end of holidays), Bellinzona-Locarno, Wädenswil-Hirzel-Sihlbrugg, Sihlbrugg-Zurich (Sihltal), Flüelen-Brunnen (Axenstrasse), as well as on some Alpine region roads, including main Alpines passes. Expect some delays at these customs stations: Au, Koblenz, Sankt-Margrethen and Thayngen.
For traffic updates
• Telephone in French, German and Italian: Viasuisse (No 163 – 50 cts/call+50 cts/min)
• Radio DRS/RSR/RSI
• web sites: www.tcs.ch, www.cff.ch, www.teletext.ch (rail: p 486/487, road: p 491 – 497), www.bls.ch.
Bern and Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Southeastern Valais will continue to have five small airfields high in the Alps, the Federal Council has decided as part of the country’s sustainable development review of mountain airstrips. Landing and takeoff altitude and seasonal restrictions will be put in place as part of the approval process. The Federal Aviation Office has outlined the new system, after months of study and consultations with groups that included environmentalists, tourism offices, local residents and heli-skiing fans. Four of the five exist already, but one, Unterrothorn, will disappear and be replaced by a new airstrip in the Trift region near Zermatt, which will be a base for heli-skiing. The airfields are used by mainly by pleasure craft.
A bus driver lost control of his vehicle, which plunged down a hilly mountainside, killing 22 passengers and injuring 9 in Kashmir’s Kishtwar district, where road conditions and mountainous terrain are the cause of frequent accidents. CNN
Grindelwald, Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – One of the bodies of two 21-year-olds who died 24 or 25 March on the Eiger has been recovered, but difficult meteorological conditions have hampered rescuers trying to reach the other body. The two, both very experienced climbers, appear to have been caught by bad weather. Police have now confirmed that the climber whose body was recovered died of hypothermia.
The young men were Swiss, but police will not release more information until they have been formally identified.
Earlier story, GenevaLunch
Swiss forest
Appenzell, Switzerland (Independent, UK and International Herald Tribune)- The popularity of hiking in the buff has caught on in the canton of Appenzell, if you believe international media, but not necessarily with support from the local population. Swiss and foreign hikers alike continue to take advantage of the fact that no law currently exists forbidding being naked in public, says the New York Times, whose story, also a feature in the International Herald Tribune, ran around the web like wildfire 17 March. Not so, according to a January report in Britain’s The Independent, which warns wannabe nude hikers that they now risk a CHF200 fine.
