The Rhone Glacier Grotto has long been maintained by the Carlen family. Here, heiress Elsa Carlen, is flown by an Air Zermatt helicopter to the nearby Furka pass on June 13, 1980. (Keystone)
Keystone
An Air Zermatt rescue helicopter during a demonstration of the rescue of passengers from a cable car near Zermatt, taken on October 12, 1981. (Keystone)
Keystone
The heliport of Air Zermatt in Zermatt, May 1985. (Keystone)
Air Zermatt
A practice air lift by an Air Zermatt rescue team. (Air Zermatt)
Air Zematt
Viktor Perren from the Air Zermatt slope patrol, throws explosives out of the window to create a controlled avalanche above the ski slopes of Zermatt on January 10, 2018. (Keystone)
Keystone
An air rescue following a landslide at the Matterhorn which blocked the way on July 16, 2003. (Keystone)
Keystone
A training session for the team. (Air Zermatt)
Air Zermatt
Roads were closed for days after very heavy snowfall in Zermatt in January 2018. Tourists formed long lines to wait for a helicopter ride out of the village. (Keystone)
Keystone
The day is long: another rescue mission for Air Zermatt. (Air Zermatt)
Air Zematt
One of Switzerland’s best known air rescue services, Air Zermatt, is marking a half century of service this year.
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A British multimedia journalist who moved to Switzerland in 2010, Jo has worked in TV, radio and online. She leads a team of video journalists, picture editors, a graphic designer, data journalist and community developer, and specialises in social media. Initials: jf
Born in England, I've lived in Switzerland since 1994. I trained as a graphic designer in Zurich between 1997 – 2002. More recently I have moved on to work as photo editor and joined the team at swissinfo.ch in March 2017.
Although Air Zermatt – with one of its bases in the popular mountain resort of the same name – is most well-known for rescuing people injured or stranded on mountains, or in hard-to-reach crevasses in the Alps, it also operates sightseeing flights for tourists, taking in views of Switzerland’s iconic Matterhorn mountain or the Aletsch glacier.
Material transport accounts for 60% of its flight time: moving construction materials up to sites in the mountains for Alpine huts, mountain railways or avalanche barriers.
The company’s reach extends beyond their corner of Switzerland. In 2011, Air Zermatt and the Zermatt rescue station built a rescue centre in the Himalayas. The project was planned to be educational, and create an opportunity for knowledge transfer between mountain guides and air rescue pilots in Switzerland and Nepal.
Peaks and troughs
In the same year, two mountain rescuers from the company received the “Heroism Award” in the United States, for the highest helicopter mountain rescue ever attempted at 7,000 metres in the Annapurna peaks in Nepal. A pilot from Air Zermatt and a mountain guide from the village were training in the area when the emergency call came in. They saved three people.
But the company’s also been criticised in the past. Environmental groups such as Mountain Wilderness, argue that tourist flights and flights for heli-skiing carried out by a number of helicopter firms, including Air Zermatt are disruptive to animals and alpinists. Heli-skiing is allowed in Switzerland within set legal regulations.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.