Mystery in the observatory
At over 2,500 metres above sea level, Mount Säntis is a peak in the Swiss Alps that can now be reached by cable car. From the top you can enjoy a spectacular panorama. It is a place that has been a mystery since 1922. On 25 February of that year, the bodies of a ranger and his wife were discovered in the meteorological observatory at the top. The observatory was built in 1887. The inhospitable place was connected to the valley by a telegraph line and later by a telephone line. The rangers lived in total isolation during the winter, only receiving visits from some mountaineers in the summer. It was a lonely, frozen, white paradise, a platform raised to the sky from which you could touch the clouds. The solitude was only broken when supplies were brought down from the valley once a week.
Every day the ranger made two telephone calls with the data recorded by the meteorological instruments. Between blizzards and fog, the winter proved to be very harsh. The ranger, Heinrich Haas, and his wife Lena had lived up there alone since 1919. Nothing had ever happened, life was simple and quiet. All they had to do was enjoy the scenery and look after their instruments.
