52 | March• 2018
41 HOURS ALONE IN THE SNOW
the cable car station on the summit. I
should be able to do it in seven hours
if the conditions are OK.
Butheknowsthatsnowisforecast
from Saturday to Wednesday.
SNOW IN THE FORECAST
Dusk is starting to fall over the moun-
tainsasMarkusKochsetsacourse
for the base of the Swiss Air-Rescue
serviceknownas‘Rega’.Thehelicop-
ter pilot and his crew have just flown
aninjuredskiertotheSpitalSchwyz
hospital and are now looking forward
to an evening off.
Thentheradiocrackles.“Come
in Rega 8.” “Rega 8 here, what have
wegot?”“Weneedyoutosearch
for a missing snowboarder on the
Gemsstock, somewhere on the Gus-
pis route.”
Thepilotaltershiscourseto195
degrees and climbs to 2740 me-
tres;hecan’tflyanylowerbecause
the downslope föhn wind is raging
throughtheUrserenvalley at nearly
10 0 k i lomet res a n hou r.
SOMEWHERE BELOW,Nicolas is
growing increasingly desperate: the
lighter is empty and doesn’t work.
Hepicksupthecanofspraypaint
and turns it around in his hand. On
its side, he sees the words “Highly
f lammable, do not spray towards
naked flame.”
Thisgiveshimanidea:Nico-
lasholdsthelightertothewickof
thecandleandrepeatedlysparks
itwhilesimultaneouslyspraying
bluepaintatit.Itworks–thewick
catchesfire.Heusesthecandleto
light the camping stove.
Whilesnowmeltsinapoton
thestove,Nicolashearsamuffled
thump-thump-thump over the
noise of the wind howling through
the cracks in the hut.Ahelicopter!
They’re searching for me!
He dashes outside. The chopper is
circling right above him, in exactly
therightplace–butwhyisitflying
sohigh?Andwhyisitveeringaway?
Nici guesses that the pilot
couldn’t spot him in the storm.CHRISTIAN VON DACHis the Gemss-
tockcablecartechnicianleadingthe
search. The Rega operations centre
hascalledinSwissAlpineRescue
(ARS), a non-profit foundation run
byRegaandtheSchweizerAlpen
Club.Theraceisontosavetheyoung
snowboarder’s life.
VonDachhassetoffwith20
helperstosearchthelowerslopes
of the Gemsstock along the valley,NICOLAS HOLDS THE
LIGHTER TO THE WICK
OF THE CANDLE AND
REPEATEDLY SPARKS
IT WHILE SPRAYING
BLUE PAINT AT IT