Erich Offner prepares a simple meal. The pantry is almost empty. Tomorrow he will leave the alp and drives his 130 cows over the steep Kaiseregg pass towards a hut a bit closer to the valley.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
Some of the volunteers arrived on the alp the night before, others gather in the early hours of the cattle drive. Eric welcomes them and explains how he wants to proceed. They all know each other as they are friends or members of families whose cows spent the summer on the alp.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
The weather has improved compared with the previous days. Fair conditions are crucial for the animals as one cow is injured and had to be evacuated by helicopter.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
Eric called the Air Glacier company at 7.30 in the morning. Visibility is good. Ten minutes later, the helicopters lands and the cow is made ready for transport.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
Goodbye Kaiseregg alp! Five minutes later, the cow arrives at its owner on the Salzmatt alp. The herd takes nearly two hours to reach the lower-lying pastures.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
Some of the volunteer who arrived the previous evening still feel a bit hung over. The employee of Air Glacier watches the helicopter with the cow take off. A bit later he will be flying away too.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
Every volunteer has a wooden stick which is bleached by sunlight and decorated with an ornament or an inscription burnt into the wood.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
Erich Offner is rallying the animals to make them ready for the drive down the alp.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
Erich leads the herd up a steep path towards the pass. The cows follow behind.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
The ground is wet and slippery. But the cows advance steadily. Sometimes they stop for a while. But most of them continue if pushed gently or with some patting on the back.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
Over hedge and ditch towards fresh pastures.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
Erich looks back to see how the herd is coming down the pass.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
The animals and the chief herdsman have arrived at the pass.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
The last few steps to the top.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
An impressive view of the mountains towards the Chörblispitz (at 2,103 metres) seen from the pass.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
Having successfully reached the pass, the animals now negotiate the steps down the steep hiking path.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
The cows have to be driven slowly and carefully and slowly the steep incline.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
The volunteers have positioned themselves next to the path at the narrow bends. There is a real risk that some of the animals get nervous and try to jump the fence. They would almost certainly die if they stumble here.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
It's easier when the open country flattens out towards the new pastures.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
It's done and everything went fine. Erich (centre) with his father on the moped to his right and Erich's older brother on the left.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
Erich's mother and his sister wait on the nearly 40 newly-arrived cattle drives in the lower-lying hut. The day's work has left them all hungry.
Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch
The summer’s gone, and the season on the Alpine pastures is drawing to a close. We spent a day with farmhands moving cattle down to lower pastures on a steep mountain track.
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As a photo editor I am responsible for the editorial use of photography at SWI swissinfo.ch and our collaborations with photographers. When the opportunity arises, I take a camera and accompany one of our journalists.
I trained as a photographer in Zürich and began working as a photojournalist in 1989. I was a founder of the Swiss photographers' agency Lookat Photos in 1990. A two-time World Press Award winner, I have also been awarded several Swiss national scholarships. My work has been widely exhibited and it is represented in various collections.
The Alpine chalet on the Kaiseregg Alp, which stands at an altitude of 1,799 metres, is now empty. No-one’s home, but the door is not locked. There are still some glowing coals in the stove, and the mountain mist has started to drift into the kitchen. It is cool now, and the light in the main room is weak. All the way up, I could hardly see 50 metres in front of me.
After nearly two hours of waiting, the clouds outside have parted a bit. In the distance I can see a car with a trailer going up the slope at a laborious pace. It’s Erich Offner the shepherd, with a friend of his from Plaffeien. This afternoon they have been transporting various materials, empty bottles, and an electricity generator to the upper terminus of a goods cable-car line. They would have been faster on foot than in the chugging motor vehicle.
Early next morning there’s work to be done. An injured cow needs to be evacuated by helicopter. Whereas the other animals and the shepherds can look forward to a two-hour trip on foot, the chopper is down at the lower pasture in a few minutes.
It’s time to bring the herd up across the Kaiseregg Pass, then down to the pasture at Grossniederhaus, where there’s plenty of fresh grass available. Despite the cold and moisture on the ground, the animals are surefooted. They are carefully herded along.
Erich is twenty-five years old. Even as a little boy he was up here on the Kaiseregg Alp when his parents spent summers here with their herd of cattle. In the winter he works down in the valley, earning his living as a bricklayer.
Inherited tradition
Life up on the Alpine pasture may not be quite as picturesque as people think, but it is a way of life that he inherited from his parents and that he wants to keep up himself. He knows the paths well, and this is not his first time bringing the herd up or down the mountain – but it is the first time that he is completely in charge.
You don’t get rich at this kind of work. So you have to care about living the simple life, and being in the midst of nature with the animals. The shepherd is paid a fixed amount per animal for the time spent up on the Alpine pasture by the owner of the herd. Erich negotiates a lease on the pasture from its owner, which in this case is Armasuisse, the federal government’s defence procurement agency, which has operated a shooting range for the Swiss army nearby for many years.
The numerous helping hands involved in the herding operation are not paid any money. But Erich’s mother and sister are waiting at the Alpine chalet with a traditional meal for the lot of them. It’s neighbour-help-neighbour, and appreciation is shown with a «Häppere-Brägu» (a hearty potato rösti) eaten with spoons from a common pot, and a few bottles of beer.
The region will officially celebrate the 2019 return from the Alpine pastures on September 21 in the village of Plaffeien.
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