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October 14th 2007
Published: October 16th 2007
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An e-mail arrived in my inbox this week suggesting a trip to visit a mountain landslide with another PhD student in the weekend… “sounds good”

It went on to say the circumstances of the trip will require us to use a helicopter for access.. “yeah, sure, that’s fine”

(“ha ha.. sweet!!! how can I sleep for the rest of the week?!”)

So on Friday I took the train down to Wallis and grabbed dinner and a few beers with Freddy (the PhD student). Then on Saturday we got up early, took a quick train up to Randa, wandered to an old carpark to meet the five others who were working on the slide that day…and watched them jump in a chopper with a Swiss pilot with a gun grey helmet that had “Victorinox” printed across the back in bold red letters.

The weather has been unseasonably summery of late, and we had perfect views as our ferry load struggled up almost vertically up 1000 meters of clear, still mountain air. The slopes are SO steep here, and even the helicopter found it tight, having to traverse across the rock face to maintain a bit of forward speed
GentianGentianGentian

So similar to the ones at home.. but SO much brighter!
and keep lifting with us 3 geologists and gear onboard.

The valley below the slide runs north-south, and at this time of year the river on the valley floor doesn’t get a direct look at the sun and begin to defrost until 11am.. We were delivered into mildly warm half-sun on the crest of the slide, most of the way out of the valley. As soon as the rays made it over the peaks to the east, the temperature quickly climbed into the mid 20’s.. perfect for measuring cracks and having a bit of intelligent(?) discussion for a day 😊

The Swiss Alps are stunning, I took heaps of photos, it’s a bit embarrassing.. but who knows when I’ll be back.

The ride down was probably even more “enlightening” (fun) than the one up.. the slide is so recent that the scarp at the top remains really sharp, you could easily step off it if you weren’t paying attention… we took off from the gentle grassy crest, gaining a few metres of altitude before the chopper banked to the right and suddenly dropped over the edge into a series of broad circles, making short work of the kilometre of nothing between us and the river below - It seems you pay by the minute when spending time with these guys 😉

That was yesterday, I spent today in the Mattertal valley, and am now sitting in the train on my way home. I took the easy option again today and paid for a gravity-defying cable car up to a tiny 15 house village, then walked an hour or so up to a glacial valley to sit, read a book, and eat my squashed lunch in the sun. I’ve definitely seen my fair share of the rays this weekend, I’ve drunk about 2 litres of water while I’ve been sitting here on the train with my face decidedly warm.. still, it’ll be winter soon - or so they say.. and really, I couldnt've asked for a better autumn weekend! 😊



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Standing on te edge discussing the game plan. The debris waaay down the bottom is 1km away!
Livin on the edgeLivin on the edge
Livin on the edge

Still a pretty traditional lifestyle... most people live on small farms in the houses on the valley floor
JungenJungen
Jungen

A typical mountain village only accessible by cable car
Takin' in some sunTakin' in some sun
Takin' in some sun

... and reading a book on the rocks after a tough climb
ok, so maybe not THAT tough a climbok, so maybe not THAT tough a climb
ok, so maybe not THAT tough a climb

I took this cable car up to Jungen to give my lungs a bit of a head start


15th December 2007

mate, am very jealous of the heli ride through the alps. looks stunning.

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