Into the night with Nadja Woman power on the mountain.
Intro
The mighty snowcat slowly edges across the white carpet of snow below the Stätzerhorn. A petite young woman – Nadja Gut – is behind the wheel. She steers the 14-tonne vehicle with ease by the light of the full moon, enjoying the feeling of having the mountain all to herself.
Lenzerheide
The idyllic, park-like countryside of the high valley of Lenzerheide provides the perfect setting for experience-packed and relaxing holidays. In winter a varied ski region awaits winter sports enthusiasts on both sides of the valley.
Hint
Virtually effortlessly, the heavy vehicle makes its way up the steep slope.
It judders slightly and the monotonous droning of the engine has a lulling effect. But not on the driver.
Multitasking is what it’s all about.
With full concentration, Nadja calmly adjusts the different elements of the snowcat in parallel. Although this seems trivial at first glance, it requires enormous skill. There are an endless number of buttons and steering elements – one for the winch, one for the front rake, one for the back rake, one for the milling unit and lots of others.
Once you catch the snowcat driving bug, you can’t get enough of it.
In summer she makes cheese on the alp and in winter she makes sure the pistes of Lenzerheide are perfectly prepared. Nadja loves nature and can’t imagine having a better job than this: “Once you catch the snowcat driving bug, you can’t get enough of it.” Her colleagues are of the same opinion and have given her a wonderfully apt nickname – “Stätzer princess”.
Lonely wolf?
Every driver and their snowcat are responsible for their allocated piste – Nadja included. But this doesn’t means she’s lonely – far from it. Any of her colleagues in need of assistance uses their walkie-talkie to alert the shift boss, who then takes care of all the coordination.
Nighttime ritual.
A great sense of community prevails each night at the witching hour. At midnight on the dot, Nadja puts her snowcat into neutral, switches on her revolving lights, turns on the radio and listens reverently to the Swiss national anthem. The other drivers do the same – an extraordinary show that they put on night in, night out.
The night after.
Early bird.
Even after just a couple of hours’ sleep, Nadja is up and about on the mountain early in the morning when the weather’s good. This is because she insists on critically surveying her work of the night before.
Last night’s work subject to critical examination.
If the piste is perfectly prepared, she smiles contentedly and does some pronounced carving turns in the snow. She’s back on the mountain in the evening at the latest – but at the wheel of her beloved snowcat.
Arosa Lenzerheide’s hard-working fleet.
39 drivers and 29 snowcats keep the pistes in perfect condition. They cover 225 kilometres of pistes each night.