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They’re only here for Corona. Lunch with the Kucinic family at 2630 meters above sea level. Daughter Emili, 10, takes a big bite out of the hot dog. Father Miroslav and mother Anna-Maria seem satisfied from Bettmerhorn towards the valley. Because the restaurants have been closed again since Sunday, there is a hot dog instead of lunch in the panoramic restaurant at minus 8 degrees.
Kucinics are flexible. Between Christmas and New Year they usually go to Croatia and traditionally to Austria to ski. But the pandemic prevented it. “We actually wanted to move to Sörenberg,” says Father Miroslav, “but because the ski areas in the canton of Lucerne are closed, we spontaneously drove here.”
Sunday was the first big test of the ski areas in Corona conditions. Photographs of crowded guests lead to discussions. Is skiing still allowed with 4,000 new infections per day and hospitals in Switzerland at their capacity limit?
Bettmeralp VS guests agree: Yes, you can. “When I see that the doctors I know are going skiing too, I take the liberty of doing it,” says Beno Meier, 39, from Niedergösgen SO. It even says, “It’s nicer than without a Crown,” which is why snow sports enthusiasts are more considerate and push less. Barrier tapes at lift entrances ensure snowboarders line up in rows.
Beno Meier, 39, with his daughter Marley, 7. The Niedergösgerns like it on the slopes because no one pushes them anymore.
© ride
Mountain railway operators are doing their best to implement their protection concept. Barricades at the bottom of the valley station provide space. Immediately afterwards comes the first delicate situation. During the gondola ride from Betten Valley Station to Bettmeralp, it gets narrow. After all, all the guests cover their mouths and noses. Many have special anti-virus balaclavas, but some only have a conventional scarf. The journey is comfortable compared to normal times. Instead of the 117 approved passengers, only 70 can enter the cabin.
Tight, but with a mask – that’s what he looked like in the gondola.
© ride
What snow sports enthusiasts don’t notice: The gondola is sprayed with disinfectant several times a day. A special device is used for this, which looks like a leaf blower to give space. Valentin König, director of the “Aletsch Arena”, which also includes Fiescheralp and Riederalp, proudly presents the disinfectant nebulizer.
A cable car employee in Valais is using a cold fogger that sprays disinfectant vapor.
© Pascal Ritter
If you talk to the director of the mountain railway, Valentin König, about the appeal of well-known hospital directors who advise against skiing due to the lack of hospital capacity, you are referring to the statements of the local hospital.
Upon request, the medical director of the Spitalzentrum Oberwallis, Reinhard Zenhäuser, writes:
Compared to the previous year, the hospital registered 30 percent fewer patients from the ski area. Between December 19 and 26, around 120 ski accidents were treated on an outpatient or inpatient basis at the Oberwallis hospital center. One person required intensive care due to a ruptured spleen.
Sergio Balestrieri is usually the first to attend to injuries in the ski area. The rescue chief has been working on the slopes since 1988. He notes that the number of accidents is constant. The greater caution with which skiers and snowboarders say they are away from home during Corona has little influence on this. He wrote down the accident figures on a piece of paper. Last season there were 27 accidents, in this still short season there were 20.
It’s not just the virus that is to blame
Therefore, the reduction in the number of patients at the Oberwallis hospital is more likely to be attributed to fewer guests. It corresponds exactly to the decrease in ski passes sold recorded by director Valentin König: around 30 percent.
The fact that fewer guests came is not just a result of Corona, says König. Also, because Christmas came at the end of the week, fewer tourists would have come to Valais. Some of the foreign guests, who make up about 20 percent here, also stayed away. Especially Dutch and Germans are regular guests. For them, the quarantine upon their return was probably the biggest obstacle.
Quarantine apartment for the British
A family from Great Britain has already moved into a specially designated apartment in the valley. They have to be quarantined because they entered Switzerland after an even more contagious crown mutation occurred in England.
The Kucinics, the Bettmerhorn family of hot dogs, feel safe. They would keep to themselves and thus avoid contacts, they say. They are also careful on the slopes. From Bettmerhorn you go down again by gondola. Better safe than sorry.
