How Swiss life copes with snow
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BEFORE I go behind the scenes to see how they efficiently deal with deep snow, I had first better set the scene.
In 1120 the Count Conrad of Seldenburen who was a wealthy warrior, had decided that he would change his lifestyle and establish a monastery (Kloster in German) and end his days as a monk. He had no idea where to establish a monastery and wandering on the back of his ox in Central Switzerland, found himself going up a narrow valley to a large bowl, totally surrounded by high mountains, mostly over 3000 metres (around 10,000 feet) above sea level.
It was here that the poor old ox finally laid down and died, and so the Count decided that this was where he would start the monastery. It was granted many privileges and rights, and the town grew up around it. Today, the monastery is still there, in Kloster Platz, which the locals all call Ox Matte (Ox field).
At certain times of the year, when the sun is in the right position, it rises behind the summit of one of the mountains called Hahnen, which dominates the town. This light, brightly illuminating the craggy summit, looks like an angel, and so the town is called angel mountain – Engelberg in German.
I went there in January this year, flying in to Zurich, catching the connecting train from the airport (the station is under the airport terminal – sensible!) to Luzern where there is a connection to the metre gauge Zentralbahn. By the way, unlike our stupid railway system, one ticket works on any train – you do not have to worry about being on a different franchise train.
The smart Zentralbahn train hurtles along as far as Grafenort. Here there is a large building, dating from 1690, which belongs to the Engelberg monastery and is used as a summer holiday residence for the monks. Until recent times, and before the very modern minimalist station was built, part of it was rented by the railway as a waiting room, ticket office and parcel room – which must make it the oldest building used for a railway station in the world.
From Grafenort, the road and railway snake up the narrow valley to Engelberg, but the mountain is very unstable and has always caused problems with landslides and tree falls. The railway has now a new tunnel through this section. You emerge into the daylight and 2ft of snow, sparkling in the winter sunshine.
Engelberg town is 1,000 metres, around 3,250 feet, above sea level. The roofs had about 18in of snow on them, and in odd places the snow ploughs had left piles of snow about 6 feet high – but all the roads and pavements were clear to a depth of only a couple of inches of snow. All the trains ran on time to the second, the road was always open (with police watching that you had snow chains on, a law there) and it was no bother. That night 30cm, 1ft, of snow was forecast. Typically Swiss, in the morning there was 1ft of fresh snow lying, and it would continue to snow for the next 24 hours with no disruption at all to anything.
So how do they cope? I went to the local council depot to see. For a start, it was spotlessly clean. As the manager said, it is easier to keep a clean depot clean, rather than try to clean a dirty depot.
The Swiss have great respect for the environment. In the carpentry section, a man was planning wood for benches to put up on the hiking paths in the summer season. They also make and repair hiking bridges over streams, also from local wood. The wood came from trees from the hills around the town of course. All the shavings were bagged and available for free to townsfolk to use for kindling.
The recycling shed was also clean and tidy, with bins for everything – far more than we have. The snow blower was in action clearing 3ft of snow in the yard. The road chief explained how they operate. This snow had been predicted, but they cannot be exactly sure where it will lie, that depends a lot on the wind. He was up at 3am to see what was happening.
All the roads must be clear by 8am for the ski buses and the school traffic, and the ski and winter sports fans coming up the valley in their cars, and the tour buses. They plough the roads and blow the snow up into five trucks, which are local haulage companies. This is good business for them as construction in this climate is not possible, so it is off season work for them.
The snow is driven away to be dumped safely where it can melt without causing any problems. Twelve men work on this, and all roads were clear by 8am if not before. The chief proudly showed off their ice remover. Once the snow has been cleared, depending on conditions, they can be left with a layer of bare ice on roads.
He had been to Canada to see this piece of kit in action, then returned and designed his own version. It is just like a hair comb, but made of half inch thick steel, and 10 feet wide. He attaches this to the snow plough brackets on a lorry and drives it along the road, the teeth break up the ice and they can scoop it up and dispose of it.
I wondered what damage it does to the road surface – but he showed a section of road where it had just been used – there were scrape marks along it, but no damage. Of course, Swiss roads are nice and even and smooth surfaced, not full of lumps and uneven wearing surfaces like ours.
Another squad of three men are busy clearing hiking trails. It is essential that roads are kept passable, and so they do it. There is no question of having insufficient money, manpower, machinery, or salt. This would be self defeating – if people cannot access the town, shops or schools, or the ski centres, the lost revenue would cost more, so it must be done – simple.
I know that it works because I was woken up at 4 in the morning when the snow blower was passing my hotel, blowing the snow into the tipping lorries that run alongside it in procession rather like trailers alongside a combined harvester. The temperature all day was minus 7 to minus 9 degrees C.
Then there is the potential for avalanches, and this is very tightly controlled in conjunction with the Titlis people. The Titlis is the highest mountain overlooking Engelberg and the biggest ski resort. It is not so well known, but has many advantages over the more popular resorts. Only around 4% of the tourists here are from the UK – we are missing out; it is worth discovering Engelberg and not only for its full and comprehensive range of winter sports, but also for summer hiking.
It also has unique events; while I was there the world "fat bike" championships were being held. Fat bikes are roughly mountain bikes adapted with large fat tyres to work on snow. A total of 120 contestants from all over the world were there. A man from South Africa said that they trained on sand in the desert, which is similar to snow, but of course they cannot train in the cold and they were struggling a little. On one stretch, high up, they were bogging down in deep powdery snow and just falling over.
They also have SnowXbikes, invented in Engelberg – a battery powered motorbike with skis for front wheels and caterpillar tracks for a rear wheel. Great fun.
The busy "behind the scenes" activity starts very early, as early as a 5am cable car to take staff up, and all the supplies for all the restaurants and shops. It is not healthy to live up at 10,000 feet, so the staff live down in the town. They have to go up, prepare for the tourists, and clean up and get down on the last cable cars around 5pm – a very long working day. Of course, up there the snow is even deeper and more frequent – how do they cope? I went to find out.
The Titlis cable car base station has a large car park (always kept clear by the roads department) and a ski rental shop, restaurant and après ski large and popular restaurant/pub. The car rises to Gerschnialp where there are lots of tracks, pistes, and ski tows and toboggan runs, and on to Trübsee. Here there is a lake (totally frozen in January, of course) and the gondola which takes you on up to Stand. Here again, restaurants, shops, and many possibilities for ski, snow boarding (especially off-piste, one of Engelberg’s specialities) and the final gondola up to Titlis summit. This one is special – it rotates.
The cabins are quite new, the old ones are still there at the moment, these ones rotated around a central core, the new ones, 50% bugger capacity, totally rotate, so that you slowly see the whole panorama. Up at the top it was minus 17 degrees C, and there was 9ft 2in of snow. I went out to walk across the snow bridge. This is a steel cable bridge across from one peak to another, over a chasm that I couldn’t see (probably just as well!) because of the blowing snow, which was so hard it was like being shot-blasted, and the wind howled around me like a banshee.
But once again, even at this height and in such inhospitable conditions, the paths were walkable, the snow cleared away so that it was not a problem. How do they do it? The answer was to talk to the Piste Patrouille. Thankfully the chief was down at Trübsee, so down I went (after walking through the tunnel in the ice of the glacier).
Here there is the Igloo Village. You can stay in an igloo if you wish. The Piste Patrouille would meet us – but he was late. When he swished up in a thoroughly casual and perfectly natural silent ski glide, he apologised for being late – he had to deal with a problem. He is another one who starts out at 3 in the morning, to see where the snow is lying, and what has happened in the night.
There is an avalanche centre in Davos, and he liaises with them. If an avalanche could be imminent, flashing warning lights are placed in many locations to warn skiers and snow boarders. He explained that if you are caught in an avalanche and buried, they have 15 minutes to dig you out, or you suffocate.
At all the ski rental shops you can hire a transponder device, which emits a signal that the patrol can pick up, and then with the help of long thin poles they can locate you and save you. The chief’s frustration came across as he said that people take the "bleep" as he called it, but then do not spend the 10 minutes free tuition on how to use it.
He also spoke of those foolish enough not to take one, and of the "free boarders" and off-piste skiers who like to go away from the marked areas – those people are on their own, he said, although they still have to go and try to rescue them when they know that someone is in trouble, including doing sweeps with helicopters equipped with "bleep" equipment. Often dogs are useful in such dangerous situations. Most accidents and deaths occur when someone falls off a cliff or rock face.
The patrouille liaise with Engelberg roads department as well, to co-ordinate avalanche creation. Where they see snow has built up, particularly on the steep rocky slopes surrounding them they set off explosive charges to cause avalanches to shift the dangerous snow. Obviously this has to be done very early in the mornings, before the first skiers arrive. There are a variety of methods. On slopes where this usually occurs, they have fixed guns. These remote operated gas guns set off a loud "bang" and down comes the snow.
Then there are teams of two blasters. These men carry charges and climb/ski to the dangerous areas, plant their charges, and retire. The charges are 1.5 kilos of explosive placed on wooden poles 1 metre above the surface, the air explosion is best for dislodging the snow. In some areas where it is too dangerous for men to go, a helicopter is used, and the two-men teams drop their explosive "bombs" in precise places, again the explosions bring down the unwanted snow.
Finally, they have guns which can fire a charge up to 600 metres. This is used, for example, to clear snow that is under cable car runs. Of course, dislodging all this snow means that it goes somewhere else, and they have a range of snow clearing machines to shove it out of the way, where it will not cause any harm by falling again, or blow back over pistes.
The chief was asked if the emergency that had delayed him was someone stuck in an avalanche – not at all. It was a lady who suffers from claustrophobia. She had managed to come up in the wee cable car cabin that seats six people, but could not face going down again. He said that the poor lady was actually crouched down on the snow with her head in her hands in an awful state, thinking that she was stuck up there. He and another team member had reassured her, and taken her round to the big gondola cabin and accompanied her down.
All in a day’s work for these dedicated and highly professional people.
On the way down again, I could see the work (mostly suspended during the winter – you cannot pour concrete at these low temperatures, or work outside very well) for the new cable cars that will enter service in sections from the end of this year to 2016/2017. This will increase the capacity by 50%, making it quicker and easier to access the high slopes all the year round. This investment of around 60 million Swiss Francs (£46.5 million approx) is being funded by the Titlis Company – a major investment!
As I walked back to my hotel, I stood back while a pair of snow plough lorries came along the road side by side, one shoving the snow to the nearside, the second one continuing the process by shoving it onto my pavement. However, shortly after came the pavement plough. It is non-stop work when it snows so heavily all day, but they are well on top of the job.
I think that the success of the Swiss in dealing with the snow comes down to their attitude of "we decided to do it". Follow on from that and you set out with enough manpower and machinery to do it.
In the UK we make the excuses that we only suffer from snow occasionally, so it is not worth gearing up for it, we have cut-backs in council tax and expenditure, and if it disrupts schools and stops trains from running and allows far more road accidents and trips and falls, that is cheaper and from a different budget.
We have short-term thinking, lack of a global overview that would say that it is NOT cheaper, and instead of a ‘can do" attitude, we always start to think of why we cannot do it. Go to Engelberg and see how it is done, efficiently, as a matter of course.
To find out more about Engelberg, see www.titlis.ch, www.engelberg.ch It is a great holiday destination all the year round. English is spoken everywhere, toilets are impeccable, with the only difficulty being that the Swiss Franc is a strong currency, and the soggy pound makes for a poor rate of exchange, so things are expensive for us.
However, packages are available to help with this, and for getting about in Switzerland you cannot beat the Swiss Pass which gives you unlimited travel on train, bus, boat, cable cars etc., see www.myswitzerland.com The Swiss travel system is second to none.
