What makes extra-memorable travel experiences? Maybe it’s a special hotel, magical scenery or attending a unique event in a faraway location? Or perhaps it’s another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Like that presented to me one late autumn day in the late 1980s…

An invitation to fly

Summer, like most of the tourists, was long gone; the days were colder and shorter as I hiked up the Albula valley in southeast Switzerland. On a whim, I decided to spend a few days at Hotel Sönnenheim in pretty little Bergün/Bravuogn.

Exploring nearby Latsch, clattering rotors and a turbine’s whine drew me to a remote car park where logs flown off the slopes of Cuolm da Latsch were being landed.
In the hotel that evening, I discovered that the helicopter crew and I were the only guests. We got chatting and before long, my new friends invited me to fly with them. Thoughts of what my travel insurance didn’t cover lasted only nanoseconds before I agreed.

Low cloud and power lines

For several days, I rode up to Latsch in the crew’s van each morning, helped them de-ice the Aérospatiale Lama, then waited as they flew local foresters onto the mountain. That done, I occupied the left-hand seat whenever I wanted as we hovered – rotors inches from the treetops – over the precipitous slope while the woodsmen hooked logs to our longline.

Hour after hour, too thrilled to think about fiery death, I rode shotgun as we clocked cycle after cycle. Later, dodging low cloud and power lines, we flew one last load down as sunset filled the valley with velvety shadows. After supper in the Sönnenheim’s cosy pine-panelled stübli, the crew played (unfathomable to non-Swiss) Jass, we drank Calanda Bräu and I listened to military flying tales that made our day’s heli-logging seem tame.

A fascinating coda

Too soon, I had to leave. But the experience, the kind Swiss francs simply can’t buy, remains among the most memorable from decades of travel. Interestingly, 25 years later, the tale had a fascinating coda.

While watching a documentary about Zermatt’s helicopter rescuers, one Lama’s registration number looked familiar. I checked and discovered it was ‘my’ aircraft from Latsch, by then reliveried and flown by Air Zermatt. Further research revealed HB-XND’s destruction in a (non-fatal, though the pilot was injured badly) crash at the Monte Rosa Hütte one June morning in 2010.

It’s amazing what can happen when you check in to sleepy Alpine hotels and grasp travel’s surprise opportunities!