Wheels Up for Raclette

What if everything I loved suddenly appeared on the slope of a Swiss mountain?

If you know anything about me by now, it’s that I love travel and I love planes and I like hiking. I would say that I love hiking, but I’m rather round in shape and not very good at it. Still, I keep trying.

There is an alpine pasture in Switzerland called Axalp, which overlooks Lake Brienz from an altitude of 1,535 metres, just over 5,000 feet. It is a popular place in the winter, with a chair-lift and three tow-ropes to cater for skiers of all skill levels. In the summer, it is the startpoint for a range of hiking paths.

And every autumn, high above the pasture, the Swiss Air Force fighter jets perform live firing exercises. The exercises over Axalp date back to 1942, after Air Force officials became concerned that their flight crews lacked mountain flying skills.

Axalp Fliegerschiessen Airshow: The hard to get to airshow

The training area is perfect for the many skills that are required for mountain shooting. Examples are: maintaining minimum and maximum altitude and aiming and firing in a very short time frame. All of this while maintaining cover. Combine this with sustaining G-forces up to 7.5G.

Over time, the exercise shifted to an invitation-only demonstration. In the 1990s, the demonstration became established as a public air show, including helicopters, parachutists and an aerobatic display by the Patrouille Suisse.

Wikipedia informs me that the fighter planes no longer do bombing runs, which is a bit of a relief, because this year, I’m going to be there!

An amazing supporter has agreed to sponsor my trip to Brienz for up to €800, which covers my flight, public transport and four nights in a guest house.

A shuttle will take spectators from Brienz to Axalp every day, starting at 5:30 am. From Axalp, theoretically there’s a chairlift that would take me partially up the mountain but that sold out before I got my tickets. So I’ll be hiking 708 metres (2,320 feet) up the mountain to the viewing locations, estimated to be about two to three hours, depending on your fitness level. So, four hours for me.

The Swiss Army are helicoptering in a selection of portapotties, kiosks, and crates of food and drink to the two official viewing areas at 2,200 metres (7,200 feet) above sea level. Apparently getting a ride with one of those helicopters is next to impossible unless you are super important. Yes, I asked. No, I’m not.

Axalp ’23 Air Force displays has all the information for this year’s event. The flight demonstrations start at “2pm, sharp” and last 90 minutes. The website promises:

• F/A-18 gun firing in the mountains

• the Cougar’s flight characteristics

• firefighting missions

• air policing

• parascouts missions

• F/A-18 flight characteristics

• PC-21 presentation

• special forces operations

• Patrouille Suisse

Then it’s back down to Axalp where shuttles will be available to take me back to Brienz until 8pm that evening. The Swiss Army have not included any information as to what will happen to me if I haven’t made it down by then.

Of course, it is October in Switzerland so the chances of rain or storms is quite high. The air show may be cancelled, possibly at short notice, if there are any weather concerns. In order to maximise my chances of seeing the show, I’ve arranged to attend the practice run on Tuesday as well as both days of the official event, on Wednesday and Thursday.

Yes, that’s right, I am not just hiking up the mountain and down again, I’m doing it three days in a row.

No, I’m not sure it’s a good idea either, now that I see it written down like that. But I sure am excited to try.

Travel, hiking and planes. The only thing I love more than planes is cheese and apparently, there will be a stand at the top that sells Raclette, a Swiss dish of hot melted cheese with boiled potatoes. So, I have set up a special promotion for supporters to get 30% off of the annual subscription! If you subscribe now, I promise to spend it on overpriced cheese delivered to me at 7,200 feet by helicopter.

There will be photographic evidence.