Zematt's Ski Pistes Online

By Raúl Revuelta

Since 18 August 2011 it’s been possible to ski several pistes with just one mouse click so that in summer you can see how the runs look in winter. All thanks to Street View in Google Maps.

"With the help of Google Street View, our guests can - at least virtually - skim down the pistes and enjoy fabulous views of the Matterhorn between holidays", says Daniel Luggen, Resort Director of Zermatt. Non-skiers or those who have had enough of the heat in a city office, can now cool down with one mouse click - all thanks to Zermatt’s large fan community. With a public vote, in February 2011 the Swiss population selected its favourite ski area from 30 regions and decided which ski region should be filmed first from the Street View snowmobiles. Around 37,000 people cast their vote and Zermatt was chosen as the favourite ski region – thanks to Zermatt fans!

A survey from March 2011 shows that 53% of all people in Switzerland have used Street View at least once. Street View is also an important tool for planning travel inside and outside Switzerland. The 25% access from abroad shows the popularity of Swiss pictures on Google Maps. Some 1000 Swiss companies, including Switzerland Tourism, have already integrated Google Maps into their websites. 

2010 Solar Prize for Klein Matterhorn Restaurant

By Raúl Revuelta

The 2010 Solar Prize "confirms our belief that we are on the right track", said Christen Baumann, CEO of Zermatt Bergbahnen AG. With its groundbreaking projects, the company is continuing with the series of pioneering achievements that began in Zermatt more than 200 years ago: as early as 1767, the Geneva naturalist and first person to climb the Klein Matterhorn, Horace Benedict De Saussure, conducted the first experiments on the utilisation of solar energy here. With more than 2,500 hours of sunshine a year the Matterhorn glacier paradise (Klein Matterhorn) in Zermatt with its viewing platform at an altitude of 3,883 metres above sea level is the sunniest place in Switzerland. The solar Restaurantopened by Zermatt Bergbahnen AG on the south flank of the mountain for the 2008/09 winter season produces all the electricity for heating and ventilation using the photovoltaic system built into the facade. Thanks to the optimised design, the building fulfils the requirements of the Minergie-P standard.

 

When developing its infrastructure, Zermatt Bergbahnen AG focuses on three pillars. The first of these is efficiency. Renewable energies make up the second pillar and the third is the use of CO2-free electricity in buildings and to operate the facilities.

The design chosen and the energy concept fulfil the stringent requirements of the Minergie-P standard. The entire electricity consumption for heating and ventilation is produced by the photovoltaic system incorporated in the facade. The ventilation at the rear of the facade is a real innovation. It prevents overheating of the solar panels while enabling the outside air used for the ventilation system to be prewarmed. At the same time, 52 centimetres of heat insulation and triple-glazed windows ensure low energy loss. With the goal of retaining all material cycles within the building to the maximum possible extent, appropriate solutions were found for dealing with the scarce resource water. The building is equipped with its own membrane reactor water treatment plant. This allows purified waste water from the kitchens and washrooms to be recycled for flushing toilets.
The Swiss Solar Agency was founded in 1990 as the Solar91 Working Group and, together with the former energy minister Federal Councilor Adolf Ogi, launched the Swiss Solar Prize. The Prize has been awarded every year since 1991. The European Solar Prize adopted the Swiss model and has been awarded since 1994. The aim of the Swiss Solar Prize is the reduction of Switzerland’s international energy dependency of 82% (2006) by the intensified use of solar power through the use of efficient and economical technologies. The Swiss Solar Prize is awarded annually in the following categories: Persons (persons and legal entities, companies, enterprises etc.), Institutions (municipalities, public institutions, cantons), Buildings (new buildings, refurbishment of buildings), and Plants (Solar thermal collectors, photovoltaic plants, biomass plants).

Zermatt: A leading resort in the Alps

By Raúl Revuelta

Zermatt (Valais, Switzerland) can be included in the selected group of the international destination resorts that attract skiers from all over the world. Zermatt is a car-free resort and mountain village at the foot of the Matterhorn, surrounded by an incredible landscape of mountains and glaciers.

Zermatt Bergbahnen, the largest aerial cableway company in Switzerland, understands nowadays the challenges for the ski resorts are gaining competitive advantage by being environmentally friendly and offering a quality service. On completion of a multistage auditing process carried out over a period of around one and a half years, the staff of Zermatt Bergbahnen have been granted on September 25, 2005, ISO-9001 Quality management certification and ISO-14001 Environment management certification for all enterprise areas of activity.

Also, ski resorts have been forced to invest and innovate to remain competitive; new ski lifts, snow making machines, cultural, sports and entertainment facilities and refurbished buildings are some of the necessary measures employed to render resorts more attractive. Since 2002, Zermatt Bergbahnen AG has invested CHF 105 million in transport equipment, CHF 39 million in pistes and artificial snow equipment, and CHF 34 million in property and vehicles.

On September 2007 Zermatt Bergbahnen AG reported figures substantially ahead of those reported five years ago at the time of the merger. The relatively warm winter seen again in 2006/07, with scant natural snowfall, proved the CHF 40 million in capital expenditures for artificial snow equipment to be a wise investment. An armada of over 700 lances and snow machines made it possible to open over 100 km of top-quality slopes in early December. The Matterhorn ski paradise posted record attendance for the period between Christmas and New Year's, with an additional 2,000 to 5,000 guests per day and 15,045 daily passes sold on the peak day of New Year's Eve 2006.

Matterhorn ski paradise daily pass sales for the last winter were up by 42,940 year-on-year (3.2%) to 1,368,920, and seasonal pass sales by 733,470 (7.3%) to 10,671,230. For the full-year, sales totalled 1.8 million daily passes and 12,956,230 seasonal passes. With over 2 million skiing days, the Matterhorn ski paradise is one of the largest contiguous ski areas in the world.