Destination Magazin Nr.3/2019 EN

“YOU NEED NERVES OF STEEL”
The last descent belongs to them. They
trigger avalanches, position piste markers, and
rescue injured skiers. Head of mountain
rescue Albert Hegner on danger and his team’s
role in ensuring guests can ski safely.
Text: Jeannine Zubler
Photos: Puzzle Media
“He needs to turn off the engine.” Bärti, as
Albert Hegner is better known, needs to
focus. Right now, nothing else matters,
not even the helicopter waiting to fly him
to his next port of call. An avalanche has
damaged a monitoring station. Bärti has
to assess the damage and, if possible,
repair it on site.
Bärti Hegner, calmness incarnate?
He laughs, “Sometimes I’ll lose my cool for
five minutes or so... but it never helps.” He
always has a plan B – and nerves of steel.
“I always have a plan B”
The ability to stay calm is indispensable in a job where the situation is
constantly changing. And ‘routine’ is an alien concept to Bärti. The one
fixed point in his schedule is at half-past four each morning when he
is always in his office at the valley station. From there, he analyzes the
previous night, and in particular the information collected by his snowcat
drivers. He uses everything at his disposal to estimate the current
avalanche risk and decides whether the ski area will open that day.
The Swiss Avalanche Institute (SLF) makes a general
recommendation for the area which serves as a guide. In addition to
all of that, he sometimes draws on the experiences of his predecessor
Dominik Kalbermatten, who boasts 25 years worth of valuable
knowledge when it comes to assessing the snow situation in the
area. Sometimes, Bärti has to increase the danger level above the
SLF recommendation. As the head of mountain rescue for the high
alpine ski resort Saas-Fee, he has a huge responsibility and faces
several challenging decisions daily. A particular challenge of this ski
resort is that it starts at an altitude where many others end, at 1,800
metres above sea level. The avalanche situation is rarely clear cut.
As the leader of the mountain rescue team, he is responsible for the
safety of the whole area. It would even be his duty to recommend total
evacuation if the avalanche risk were to reach levels that extreme.
He makes these decisions with the support of the Bergbahnen (lift
company) management team as well as the crisis staff at the town hall.
After a heavy snowfall, the ski resort usually stays closed at
the beginning of the day. It remains closed until Bärti and his team
can detonate explosives to trigger controlled avalanches in highrisk
areas, removing dangerous buildups of snow from the steepest
slopes. They usually use a helicopter, or, when there is no other
option, they ski tour and do the job by hand. When it comes to touring,
Bärti needs to carry around 20 kilograms of explosives in his backpack.
Is that not scary? “It‘s heavy,” he says with a wink. Once the
snow loads on the steep slopes have been reduced, the avalanche
Both in Saas-Fee and Saas-Grund there
are glacier slopes. Leaving the pistes
in glacial areas is extremely risky and
re-quires years of experience, training,
and knowledge of crevasse rescue and
how to use ropes effectively. Mountain
guides know the area well and offer ski
and snowboard freeride tours.
Saas-Fee‘s piste patrol works closely with Air Zermatt. For complex rescues in
difficult-to-access terrain, Bärti calls in the helicopter. This is often the case when the
rescue requires heavy equipment.
situation can be reassessed. And when it reaches a reasonable level
of risk, they can reopen the snowsports area. That doesn’t mean the
risk has totally resolved, Bärti emphasises: “You should never lose
your respect for the mountains. Avalanche danger prevails, as long
as there is snow on the ground.”
Crevasses also present a huge risk factor. In the winter they
lie hidden under a sheet of snow. Even Bärti, who knows the area
and its terrain better than most, says that leaving the marked pistes
on the glacier is too dangerous for him. He has witnessed far too
many rescue missions for that. He recalls the time a young snowboarder
fell into a crack below the Allalinhorn. Despite the efficient
rescue effort, the snowboarder later died in the hospital. Such cases
can really affect Bärti and the team. Especially when children are
involved, he reflects, becoming more pensive. “During the rescues, in
“During the rescues, in the moment,
I’m on autopilot, just following my training
to the word.” But it‘s always tough when
security concerns mean Bärti Hegner has to
make the call to suspend a mission
when he knows people are still missing.
saas-fee.ch/bergfuehrer
Avalanche bulletin
Produced by the WSL Institute for Snow
and Avalanche Research SLF, the
bulletin appears twice daily in winter: find
it on slf.ch or the app for smartphones.
“We talk a lot within the team about
the things we experience. Talk,
talk, and talk again, it helps us to
process everything.”
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