For 25 years, Ueli Grundisch was the chief of rescue of the Sektion Oldenhorn  of the SAC (Swiss Alpine Club) and was given a ceremonial farewell at the section's autumn meeting last Saturday.
The post of chief of rescue passed to Simon Bolton, mountain guide and managing director of Alpinzentrum Gstaad AG, who says he is very much looking forward to his new task: "The rescue station is very well set up, has many young volunteers and is generally of a very high standard."

Problem child Geltenhütte
Besides all the cheerful aspects, there was a more serious focus on the Geltenhütte. Two investment loans had to be applied for.

The energy supply of the hut has been provided by a water turbine for 23 years. However, since the renovation in 2015, the number of visitors to the hut has increased to about 4,000 overnight stays per year. The turbine still produces enough thermal and electrical energy, but there are two problems: At peak times, the hut needs a lot of energy. A second problem is the quality of the energy. The frequencies produced are far outside the permissible tolerances. Some of the fluctuations were so great that electrically operated and electronically controlled appliances (refrigerator, dishwasher) broke down.

Loans were therefore granted for a new energy concept for the Geltenhütte and the revision of the existing turbine. In the future, the hut will also be equipped with a photovoltaic system and a battery storage system to ensure a stable energy supply.

Based on AvS/Sonja Wolf