Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

SolarStratos (pictured), a solar-powered aircraft, today landed in Sion, where over the summer it will try to reach an altitude of 10,000m, before achieving its ultimate goal: the stratosphere. In today’s briefing, we look at other impressive achievements, including looking back at the extraordinary life of Sylvain Saudan, the Swiss father of extreme skiing, who has died aged 87.

Federal government wants to sanction excessive road traffic noise Keystone-SDA

In the news:  Noisy traffic penalties, Islamic State involvement, a cancer discovery, and a suicide capsule.

Following a pilot test in Geneva, the Swiss government is considering penalties for excess traffic noise. In the test, the maximum value was 117 decibels for a car and 110 decibels for a motorcycle. The threshold for pain and direct hearing damage is 120 decibels; the danger threshold is already at 90 decibels. The study recommends a threshold of 82 decibels, which would make around one in 200 vehicles in urban areas too loud.

A 51-year-old Algerian man has been charged by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland for involvement in the banned terrorist group Islamic State. He is suspected of having planned an attack in Europe, particularly in France.

A team from the University of Zurich has identified a signalling pathway that converts cells into aggressive tumour cells. The discovery could help in the early detection and treatment of patients with skin, colon, bladder and oesophageal cancer.

The organisation “The Last Resort” has confirmed that the suicide capsule Sarco is to be used in Switzerland. This should happen this year, it said yesterday. The organisation’s lawyers have been in touch with several cantons, but Fiona Stewart, its founding member, would not say which ones. “The Last Resort” says it has no legal concerns, having clarified everything with its lawyers.

Sylvain Saudan in 2011 Keystone

What are the chances of the father of extreme skiing, known as the “skier of the impossible”, dying peacefully in his bed aged 87? Not great, I would have thought, but that’s what Sylvain Saudan did on Sunday.

Mind you, Saudan certainly rode his luck, surviving helicopter and plane crashes and falling ice blocks, as the Financial Times noted in his obituary. In 2007, when his helicopter crashed in the Himalayas and his body couldn’t be found, his obituary was published and the tributes came pouring in. In fact, the then 71-year-old escaped from the wreckage, put on his skis and guided his two clients down into a remote Kashmiri valley. They skied all day, spent the night in the open, and eventually reached a military post the next day.

Saudan grew up in the hamlet of La Fontaine, just above Martigny in southwest Switzerland, skiing down to school each day and walking back up. At 15 he became a labourer working on the road over the Col de la Forclaz to Chamonix, then a truck driver on the Mauvoisin hydroelectric dam, while entering local ski competitions in his spare time. Without the funds to train seriously as a racer, in his twenties he qualified as a ski instructor, working across the valley in Crans Montana, then setting off on a world tour that saw him teach in Aspen, New Zealand and even the tiny resort of Glenshee, Scotland.

Back in the Alps, his attention started to turn to steeper routes, first in Arosa and St Moritz (where they took away his lift ticket for setting a bad example). But it was the descent, on his 31st birthday, of the Spencer Couloir on the Aiguille de Blaitière above Chamonix that caught the attention of the skiing world. “All the guides and skiing professionals here in Chamonix thought it was impossible,” said Saudan, speaking in the 2016 film La Liste. “No one believed it.” Proof only came the following day when a small plane flew up to photograph his tracks.

But despite being extreme skiing’s first media star, Saudan kept guiding and teaching, working into his eighties and insisting he still saw himself, above all, as a ski instructor. After the Kashmir helicopter crash in 2007, he told the reporter who rushed to his Srinagar hotel that, far from retiring, he was already trying to find a replacement aircraft. “It’s not just for me,” he said. “I organise these trips for people who love doing these activities. They are very happy that idiots like me accompany them.”

Here is Saudan in action (in pre-helmet times!):

Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

The Swiss men’s football team are back in the top 15 in the FIFA world rankings after their decent run at the recent European Championship in Germany.

Reaching the quarterfinals of Euro 2024 (where they lost to England in a penalty shootout), Murat Yakin’s team climbed four placesExternal link to finish behind Morocco, FIFA announced today.

Switzerland, now in 15th place, have overtaken the US, Mexico, Japan and Senegal in the rankings thanks to wins against Hungary and Italy and draws against Scotland the hosts, Germany. Argentina remain at the top of the rankings. Euro 2024 winners Spain rose to third place behind France.

While 15^th isn’t bad for a nation of just nine million people – and it’s above the team’s 30-year averageExternal link of 29^th – fans will be hoping the recent good form will continue and return the team to the top ten, where it resided for most of 2013-2019.

The highest position reached by Switzerland in the world rankings is 3^rd (in August 1993), before plummeting to its lowest rank of 83^rd (in December 1998).