We had a tour of the Air Zermatt heli-pad today. It was awesome. For the past three weeks, I have been seeing the helicopters all over the mountain. We even see them land on the piste to take people away. Our tour guide worked on a careflight helicopter in Houston and Corpus before returning to Switzerland. I think car crash trauma would be a lot worse in Texas than ski accidents in Zermatt.
Air Zermatt is used for a number of different purposes. The main purpose is mountain rescue (rate is 90 francs per minute, yup that's about $2700 for a 30 minute rescue). They also run sight seeing, heli-skiing, shuttle service, avalanch maintenence, deliveries to high mountain facilities, etc. The hanger had about three different types of helicopters. The heli-pad is the highest in europe and they have a special light weight heli for rescues on the Matterhorn. All of the helis are smaller stripped down versions due to the altitude. Like most tours, the guide showed a 15 minute movie about Air Zermatt which was the PBS version. Afterward, he showed a real life movie where they recovered 2 bodies out of a crevase and recovered a body of a climber who fell off the Matterhorn. Out of the 1500 rescue missions per year, about 40 are just body recoveries. Today, there were five rescue missions (last of which was grounded due to winds, so rescue was on snowmobiles). Overall it was a very fascinating tour although I would have liked to hear more stories of stupid things people do to get in trouble.
Our tour guide elaborated more about the dead guy they found this week. The skiier was with friends, but he wasn't wearing a beeper. The heli rescue guys found him by following tracks in the snow. One of the tracks stopped in a big hole in the glacier. It was the fall that killed the skiier, not exposure.
Pictures are from the tour and one day when the helicopter landed on the piste.
Air Zermatt is used for a number of different purposes. The main purpose is mountain rescue (rate is 90 francs per minute, yup that's about $2700 for a 30 minute rescue). They also run sight seeing, heli-skiing, shuttle service, avalanch maintenence, deliveries to high mountain facilities, etc. The hanger had about three different types of helicopters. The heli-pad is the highest in europe and they have a special light weight heli for rescues on the Matterhorn. All of the helis are smaller stripped down versions due to the altitude. Like most tours, the guide showed a 15 minute movie about Air Zermatt which was the PBS version. Afterward, he showed a real life movie where they recovered 2 bodies out of a crevase and recovered a body of a climber who fell off the Matterhorn. Out of the 1500 rescue missions per year, about 40 are just body recoveries. Today, there were five rescue missions (last of which was grounded due to winds, so rescue was on snowmobiles). Overall it was a very fascinating tour although I would have liked to hear more stories of stupid things people do to get in trouble.
Our tour guide elaborated more about the dead guy they found this week. The skiier was with friends, but he wasn't wearing a beeper. The heli rescue guys found him by following tracks in the snow. One of the tracks stopped in a big hole in the glacier. It was the fall that killed the skiier, not exposure.
Pictures are from the tour and one day when the helicopter landed on the piste.
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