Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

The Swiss mountains are probably heaving with hikers taking advantage of the Ascension long weekend. However, avalanches are making high elevation tourist spots deadly. Just yesterday, one person was killed above the brilliant blue Lake Oeschinen in the Bernese Oberland.

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In the news: Deadly avalanche, Eurovision dreams, cultured meat and fat loss.

One person has died in an avalanche near KanderstegExternal link in the Bernese Oberland and four others were injured, according to police. The wet snow avalanche broke loose above Lake Oeschinen yesterday afternoon. The number of fatalities caused by avalanches rose to 20 in the so-called hydrological year that lasts from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024. 

Switzerland has reached the final of the Eurovision Song ContestExternal link for the fifth time in a row. Nemo won over the audience in Malmö, Sweden, on Thursday evening with a performance of “The Code”. Switzerland previously won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 with Lys Assia and in 1988 with Céline Dion. Is it our time to shine again? We’ll find out tomorrow.

The CEO of Bell Food Group, Lorenz Wyss, expects burgers made from cultured meat to be available in Switzerland in around three years’ time. “If the technology works, it will be a real addition to traditional meat production, and we have to be part of it,” he said.

Swiss researchers have discovered that abdominal fat has a built-in mechanism to limit fat cell formation. The so-called omental fatty tissue, which hangs from the stomach like an apron and covers certain organs such as the stomach and intestines, produced a protein called IGFBP2 that is known to inhibit the formation of new fat cells. This discovery could be valuable for the treatment of obesity.

With comic strip-like illustrations, Wildenhahn also provides a visual insight into his journey through Switzerland. Deutsches Tagebucharchiv

‘Gast’ from the past: a German tourist’s travel journal from 1837

In the early summer of 1837, German theologian Carl August Wildenhahn set off from Dresden by stagecoach to travel through Switzerland and to finally see for himself the land of his dreams with its “eternal glaciers and graceful Bernese girls”. Wildenhahn documented his three-week trip with amusing anecdotes and comic strip-style illustrations.

He even made an observation about avalanches.

“First, the path takes us through Goldau – the village that was buried by an avalanche in 1806 and still bears the scars of the devastation – before leading straight uphill“.