Despite these challenges, by 1 p.m. a total of six rotations are completed per hut, with each roundtrip
to each hut taking
exactly five minutes. Each flight minute adds to the high cost, so the aircraft must fly as efficiently as possible. Opening day has finished successfully; that’s good because the first guests of the season are expected the very next evening. It has been a carefully choreographed
acrobatic dance of precision and teamwork. The only work that remains is organizing the contents in each hut and hosting the flight teams for a family-style meal of Rösti, a filling mountain meal of finely cut potatoes galette that will sustain the team for its next mission. The flight teams and hut managers will gather again to conduct the operations in the opposite direction during the autumn closures.
