Swiss override obstacles by going underground

Press, 2 March 1982, Page 21

Swiss override obstacles by going underground

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor, concludes

his series on Switzerland

The Swiss Alps have more holes than gruyere cheese. There are tunnels for trains, for roads, for skiers, for pedestrians. caverns for the storage of military aircraft and other defence installations, and, at Zermatt, even a shaft for an almost vertical funicular. Over the years, as the number 6f gondolas and ski lifts steadily multiplied around the resorts of Switzerland, the slopes soon became laced with pylons and cables that, for the visiting New Zealander, look for all the world like the prodigious handiwork of the N.Z. Electricity Department. It is scarcely surprising therefore that environmentalists are vehemently resisting further extensions to the lattice-work. But not to be thwarted, the Swiss entrepreneurs and their brilliant engineers have gone underground. For instance, a proposal to instal a new gondola climbing 762 metres (2500 ft from Zermatt to the Sunnegga Plateau drew so much flak from the environmentalists that it was eventually decided to construct an almost perpendicular funicular inside the mountain. Likewise, when it was announced that a new cableway was to be constructed to the summit of the 3820 m Kleinmatterhorn (12,532 ft), the objections to the despoiling of the skyline were so strong that the planners accepted a compromise. Instead of going to the very top they agreed to lower their sights and aim for a point about 30 metres below the summit. Today skiers and tourists can travel in comfort to this point where a cavernous terminal has been carved into the rock with a 176 metre (580 ft long connecting tunnel leading to the south side of the mountain peak. Here, at the top of the highest cableway on the Continent, sight-

seers and skiers stroll out on to the Breithorn Plateau near the Italian border, the largest summer skiing region in Europe. Perhaps the most amazing aspect of this whole feat, from an engineering point of view, is that only three towers were required to support the 3778 metre long cableway up its 891 metre high ascent. The maximum gradient is 90 per cent (almost vertical near the top) and the longest span nearly 3km or, to be exact, 2885 metres. Each of the two “cabines” of the cableway can carry 100 people to the summit in less than 10 minutes. While these latest developments at Zermatt have been amicably settled, the environmentalists are now uneasy over the prospect that one day the entrepreneurs might push to provide easy access to the top of the world-famous Matterhorn (4477 metres), that awe-inspiring pyramid which for many is the epitome of mountains. Even 90 years ago a bold plan was conceived to build a 10km “ropeway” to the peak but the scheme never materialised. Although excellent panoramas of the Matterhorn can be gleaned from the forested valley above Zermatt the pinnacle itself remains virginal to all but the most experienced climbers. Perhaps; one day though, Swiss ingenuity and determination will make it possible for tourists to climb into an elevator inside the base of the mountain and rocket up to the top to sample supreme Swiss cuisine and service in the world’s highest revolving restaurant, maybe. In Switzerland, nothing within the scope of imagination is beyond the realm of possibility. And that is what makes Switzerland such a satisfying surprise.