{"id":3971,"date":"2022-06-17T10:27:44","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T08:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/?p=3971"},"modified":"2023-10-22T14:05:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T12:05:45","slug":"the-power-of-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/2022\/06\/the-power-of-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The history of the Mattmark <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

A person who has never visited the Mattmark<\/a> and perhaps hasn\u2019t even heard of it might well ask themselves what makes this place so special? That\u2019s what I thought too when I heard about this place for the first time. For many people in the Saas Valley, the Mattmark is a true powerhouse, a place where you can think about something else, switch off and enjoy nature or escape from the stress of day-to-day life. But it is also a place that brings back painful memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I experienced this the first time I visited the Mattmark in August 2021.\nAt the site itself, I was able to directly experience the power of the\nreservoir, and how breathtaking the image of the sun reflected in the turquoise\nwater looked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mattmark in summer 2021 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In order to do this blog post about the Mattmark justice, I enlisted the\nhelp of Rolf Zurbriggen. His father, Adolf Zurbriggen, worked at the Mattmark\npower plant as a dam warden for 31 years, where he led tours of the facility.\nThis meant that Rolf had plenty of opportunities to get to know this unique\nconstruction. In order to gain a better understanding of everything, we need to\nturn back time, as our history of this impressive place starts back in the 17th\ncentury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early history <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mattmark was a 1.5 km\u00b2 plain lying approx. 5 km below the Monte Moro\npass. The Distel Alp was located to the rear. It was the largest alpine pasture\nin Saas and every community had an alpine hut there. In summer, more than 100\ncows, sheep and goats grazed on the pasture. The lower end of the plain was\nclosed off by a large glacial moraine. The Allalin glacier extended to the\nbottom of the valley and, as a natural dam, blocked the course of the Vispe,\nforming a so-called glacial lake. Again and again the lake broke its banks,\ncausing serious devastation in the Saas Valley. There are 25 outbreaks\ndocumented in Saas historical records. The Mattmark flash flood, which occurred\non 4 August 1633<\/strong>, hit the population of the Saas Valley hard. Almost\nhalf the people living there lost all of their worldly goods and they were\nforced to migrate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lake Mattmark, formed in 1818 by advancing a moraine wall (southern lateral moraine of the Allalin glacier), Saastal, Valais, condition in summer 1867. Source: ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, Picture Archives \/ Photographer: Braun, Adolphe <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1856<\/strong>, the parish priest of Saas had a hotel built, close to the blue rock. This was very important as a starting point for various mountain tours and also as a rest stop for people who wanted to travel from Saas-Almagell to Italy. In the summer months, the area also had plenty of visitors, thanks to the diversity of flora and fauna. From 1870 to 1895,<\/strong> smuggling was at its peak. Many of the men from the Saas Valley were working in the gold mines in Magugnaga. The Saas people and their Italian friends therefore knew each other very well and so selling coffee, cigarettes and saccharine in Italy was easy. These cross-border commuters mainly brought copper kettles for cooking, rice and other foodstuffs back home. Wedding rings were also much cheaper in Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hotel Mattmark from the postcard exhibition by Thomas Burgener
Postcard Photographer: Gyger, Emanuel. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The beginnings, from the construction of the dam onwards<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1920<\/strong>, engineers were in the process of investigating whether\nor not the Mattmark plain would be a suitable location for a dam to generate\nelectricity. At the beginning of the 1950s, Elektrowatt in Zurich was\ninterested in the site and in 1954 <\/strong>they proposed a pre-project.\nElektrowatt was granted water use rights by 11 municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1959<\/strong>, the Mattmark AG power plant was established on the site\nof the Hotel Beau-Site in Saas-Fee. In order to facilitate starting work on the\ndam, a six metre-wide road from Saas-Almagell to the dam was built between 1958<\/strong>\nand 1959<\/strong>. Prior to the construction of the dam, an injection screen was\ninstalled to seal the subsoil. The boreholes went right into the rock and they\nwere filled with liquid concrete. A drainage gallery was built on top of it;\nthrough this gallery the workers could carry out their inspection rounds from\nthe butterfly valve to the measuring chamber below the dam at any time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1960 to 1967<\/strong>, over a width of 373\nm and a length of 780 m, the filtered moraine material from the southern\nand northern moraines of the Allalin glacier was piled up. This created the\nlargest earth dam in Europe, with a height of 120 m and a volume of 10.5\nmillion cubic metres. At the same time, the tributary tunnels were constructed.\nThus, the water from the Allalin and Hohlaub glaciers was channelled down on\nthe left side of the valley, and on the right side, the water from the Furgg,\nAlmageller and Trift streams was fed into the reservoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photographer E. Br\u00fcgger Zurich KWM Mattmark construction site <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1961<\/strong>, the settlement of Zermeiggern, which had 20 houses,\nstables and a small chapel, was demolished. It had to make way for the\nequalising reservoir. On the right-hand side in Zermeiggern, 6 large canteens\nwere constructed for the workers, to provide accommodation and catering. In the\nsummertime, up to 1300 people worked on the power plant construction sites.\nEverything went according to plan until 1965<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The glacial ice avalanche and the years that followed <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 30 August 1965 at 5:10 pm<\/strong>, a terrible natural catastrophe took\nplace. On that fateful day, 1 million m\u00b2 of ice broke off the Allalin glacier\nand engulfed the construction site, including various barracks at Mattmark. A\ntotal of 88 workers, including 56 guest workers from Italy, were buried by the\nhuge ice avalanche and lost their lives. The accident came as a great shock to\nthe Saas population, Switzerland as a whole and Italy too. The names of the\nvictims were engraved on a stone slab in the new chapel in Zermeiggern. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One year later, work to finish the dam had begun and it was completed in\n1967<\/strong>. The inauguration and full operation of the plant took place in\n1969. Since then, the reservoir has been operated as a storage power plant,\nwhich means that the reservoir is empty in May and full in mid-September. The\ntwo power plants produce 680 million kWh of energy between them. The plants\nmainly generate peak energy for the winter. Between 1983 and 1987<\/strong>, the\ncompany set up a pumping station in Zermeiggern to pump the water from the\nequalising basin back into the dam lake. Approximately 10 million m\u00b3 of water\nis pumped up per year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 24 September 1993<\/strong>, the Upper Valais was hit by a heavy storm.\nBrig was flooded. The Saas Valley and Visp were spared, thanks to the Lake\nMattmark reservoir. It was possible to divert all the side streams back to the\nMattmark reservoir and then later allow them to flow through the middle outlet.\nIn October 2000<\/strong>, a similar situation occurred once again. Based on these\ninsights, the canton converted the dam into a multipurpose reservoir in 2001<\/strong>.\nEver since then, the canton of Valais has had a retention volume of 2.6 million\nm\u00b3 at its disposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2007<\/strong>, the reservoir was emptied in order to renew all safety\ninstallations such as the butterfly valves, the gates at the bottom outlet and\nalso at the middle outlet after 50 years of operation. The residual water was\ndischarged into the Vispe River via the bottom outlet in April. The power plant\noperator instructed the Cantonal Fishers\u2019 Association to reintroduce rainbow\nand brown trout into the lake and Vispe River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mattmark today<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2008<\/strong>, a new restaurant was built on the dam crest. The first\nfloor houses the offices of Kraftwerke Mattmark AG and an exhibition space\nwhere people can watch a film about the origins of the dam at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, not only does the dam supply electricity, it is also a wonderful place to go hiking<\/a>. Visitors can do a short circular walk around the dam reservoir. At the back of the reservoir is the new Distel Alp hut. You can admire the black Eringer cows on all of the alps. You can do a longer walk by following the high alpine hike, which starts at the Felskinn cableway in Saas-Fee and leads over the Allalin and Hohlaub glaciers down to the Mattmark. You can hike on old smuggler routes from Mattmark to the Monte-Moro pass and enjoy the view of the Monte Rosa east face when visiting the Golden Maria. If you prefer travelling on two wheels, you can also ride around the reservoir lake on a mountain bike. When hiking around the lake, you might also come across the sought-after therapeutic plant, the medicinal rose root<\/a>. It has a calming effect to counteract stress. As the plant is protected, it is bred by the Agroscope research institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mattmark and the Eringer cows in summer 2021 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you want to get an idea of the history of Mattmark, I recommend the postcard exhibition by Thomas Burgener<\/a>, who has been collecting written postcards for 40 years. From December 2021 to October 2022, Thomas will be exhibiting part of his extensive collection of postcards in Haus Alma opposite the Saas Museum in Saas-Fee. Around 250 original postcards from the Saas Valley from 1890 to the present day are on display on 10 panels. The exhibition shows the history of the picture postcard, including postcards from the Mattmark area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In memory of the workers who died in the accident, the Mattmark Memorial half marathon<\/a> has been organised since 2019. This is considered a challenging route, as there are 810 metres of altitude to conquer. The route starts at the round church in Saas-Balen. It then leads through picturesque larch forests past Saas-Grund and Saas-Almagell to Eienalpe. Taking historic paths, you then reach a pleasant climb to reach the dam wall. After this point comes the most pleasant section for the runners, consisting of 7 kilometres of a practically flat route around the picturesque Mattmark lake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mattmark Half Marathon 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is the animating story that motivated Rolf Zurbriggen to tell the Saas Valley\u2019s visitors about what Mattmark was like in days gone by and how the wonderful dam came into being. This event is organised by Saastal Tourismus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More information: <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n