I’ve been reminded of this a lot over the years, mainly when I head home to visit my parents. Both work in the medical services: my mum is a nurse and my dad’s a paramedic. They’ve patiently listened as I moan about the burning issues in my life – a free bar tab running out too fast, not getting on the guestlist for some shitty gig – when they’ve just got in from a 12-hour shift dealing with road traffic accidents, drunken injuries, and even deaths.
On a recent procrastinating internet trawl, I found myself watching the first episode (and subsequently every episode) of a web series called The Horn . It follows the lives of a helicopter rescue team that look after the Swiss town of Zermatt. Located at the heart of the Swiss Alps, it’s a favourite for skiers, snowboarders and climbers. It’s also known for being in the shadow of the Matterhorn, a mountain that is as beautiful as it is terrifying.
After perfecting the art of jumping in and out of a stationary helicopter, I notice that Simon Anthamatten, a trainee pilot and mountaineer, is looking through equipment. I feel a slightly nervous around Simon having watched him the night before on The Horn, in which he performs a rescue that’s among the most enthralling and terrifying pieces of TV I’ve seen.
A skier had fallen though a crevasse (a huge crack in a glacier), so Simon had to be slowly lowered in with the help of a huge tripod, which balances somewhat precariously between the cracks of the mountain. While being lowered down, he came across the man hanging lifelessly, the usually stark white ice surrounding him splattered with blood. Somehow, Simon and the crew got him out and revived him. After a lengthy spell in hospital the man recovered. Seeing it through the eyes of Simon is a truly harrowing watch.
“When I watched the footage back for the first time, I was like, ‘Fuck that actually looks really scary,” he tells me, leaning on the helicopter. “But we just have to be realistic; we think about our own safety, then we think about our patients. There’s no point in being scared.
The most important parts of Simon’s job are risk management and judging the best way to rescue someone without putting his own life in danger. “This gets very hard when it comes to avalanches,” he explains. “In Switzerland, two years ago, there was an accident where they were searching for people caught up in an avalanche. Then a second avalanche hit which buried the crew, and two guys died – a paramedic and I think a doctor. So you always have to try to judge the risk correctly, but you’re never 100 per cent sure.”
As I step outside and look at the helipad, one of the pilots asks if I’d like to jump in for a flight around the area. So I strap myself in, pull on a big pair of headphones, and we’re off. Rising up through the mountains, we fly over the beautiful scenery and circle around the Matterhorn. The sheer size of the area is hard to comprehend until you’re in the air and realise just how much open space there is. You can see how easy it would be to get lost – and also how royally fucked you’d be if you did so.
Simon is one of the many climbers that Air Zermatt has recruited as mountain specialists. With the hundreds of rescues that the crew undertake each year, these mountaineers – usually professional climbers or ski instructors – are employed for both their knowledge of the area and their ability to access hard to reach places.
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