Blog

Why We Love Switzerland

• November 2008
• Fly Travel

Lauterbrunnen is a beautiful mountain valley, surrounded by two thousand foot limestone walls, and overlooked by the snowy peaks and glaciers of the Eiger and the Jungfrau.


Farmers who have lived here for generations keep perfect green fields, healthy and happy cows, sheep, pigs, goats and chickens.

They also make their own big hard wheels of alpkase (alp cheese), which they keep in dark storage on shelves in their barns. You can stop and buy a hunk of cheese as you walk by, and they will stop their field work to go into the barn and chop off a piece with a big knife for you.

The Swiss engineers have built a truly astonishing network of via ferratas, cable cars, trains and buses around, onto, and actually THROUGH the mountains, on a perfectly regulated time schedule. It’s almost hard to believe it’s real, following a via ferrata cable down the side of a cliff, only to find a sturdy wooden bench waiting for you to change into your wingsuit, just above the exit point!

It’s kind of like Disneyland, but with the Eiger and the Jungfrau staring you in the face as you ride small, perfectly maintained cars along the edge of sheer cliffs. Being in Lauterbrunnen, you truly understand the meaning of “Swiss precision.”

If you buy a month long Swiss pass for $80, you can ride on any of these, as much as you want, wherever you want. But if you are one minute late, you’re waiting for the next one.

If you are a BASE jumper, and you follow a few simple rules, you can leap off the cliffs until the cows come home. And land next to them in their pastures :). It’s up to you to spot the pasture without fresh manure in the grass….

Being from the States, it is hard to believe how nice it is to jump in Lauterbrunnen. Most of our spectacular high cliffs are illegal for BASE jumping, for no apparent reason (at least, none which make sense to me). In Lauterbrunnen, as in all of Europe, BASE jumping is one more form of tourism and mountain adventure.

Because a helicopter service runs constantly from the center of the valley, bringing building materials up and down the sides, and dropping skydivers, BASE jumpers are asked to buy a $30 helicopter insurance rescue card in case a rescue is needed. Also, you must bring a cell phone to the exit point, and call the helicopter dispatcher before you jump, to make sure the helicopter is not going to be moving past you at that moment. Makes sense to me. It’s also really pleasant to hear a cheerful “You are all clear to jump. Have a nice jump!” as you switch off the phone.

Monica, the dispatcher with the most melodic and inviting voice is a great favorite among the male jumpers, who are always quick to offer to make the call when she is on shift.
In order to maintain good relations with the farmers whose fields we land in, BASE jumpers must also buy a $20 landing card. As with everything Swiss, these systems seem to run perfectly, and everyone is very happy.

At first these cliffs are a tiny bit intimidating for wingsuit flights. At 1700 and 1800 feet, they are not the tallest cliffs, and require you to be totally on the ball with solid exits and fast reactions for pull time and landing.

But big green fields are pretty deluxe, as landing zones go, even if they do have a few fencelines and a healthy dose of natural fertilizer.

It’s not long before the comfort level increases, and you are jumping together with your friends, and sometimes finding yourself taking the flight a little lower than you should.

As idyllic as Lauterbrunnen can seem, we have to always keep in mind what’s going on here….we are jumping off cliffs with nylon wings! It’s hard to imagine this is even possible, sometimes. But for the Swiss, who can make miracles from manure, and carve train tunnels through the Eiger, I think human flight is somehow just par for the course….