Working at 3,454 meters above sea level

Friday, 5:30 am. "Day watch" on the Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe First of all, a look outside to check if snow has fallen during the night. The railway staff, who have stayed overnight on the Jungfraujoch, just like the attendant at the research station, are ready to go at 6:00 am. At least two people from research and one employee of Jungfrau Railways are present overnight at the Jungfraujoch. Any snowfall determines the programme in the early morning.

Ruedi and Christine Käser are the managers of the research station on the Jungfraujoch. The married couple work on the Jungfraujoch for around 21 days at a time, before they return home to Grisons for 11 days. They supervise and maintain the premises of the Jungfraujoch research station and support the research teams working there. In addition to weather observations, they are also responsible for the correct operation of the research equipment and independently change certain components of the research facilities in good time.

Flawless cooperation

Enthusiastic mountain hikers can always count on the support of Jungfrau Railways staff. This often includes snow removal. This is carried out jointly by the attendant and railway staff, whereby the areas to be cleared are clearly divided. The meeting point is on the upper research terrace. While the company manager Ruedi Käser clears the area towards the Meteo terrace, the railway staff takes care of the area towards the tourist terrace. Afterwards, they clear the Meteo Terrace of snow as a group. Finally, the railway staff clears the tourist terrace – a tourist attraction of every Jungfraujoch journey. By this time, Ruedi Käser is already doing the first meteorological observation for Meteo Switzerland.

Of course, Jungfrau Railways also supports the research station in other ways. They take particular care when it comes to the use of equipment. The snow blower is purposefully electrically operated and therefore emission-free. If, for any other reason, emissions from the operations on the Jungfraujoch occur and are noticed, a message is immediately sent to the operation managers so that the incident can be taken into account in the research results. Jungfrau Railways also supports the research station with the postal service (sending and receiving) and works with them in the event of a fire alarm.

Christine Käser is a trained biomedical analyst, Ruedi Käser is a surveyor and engineer. As a result, they are perfectly suited to working as plant managers at the research station. They first became aware of this job in 2010 and the desire to take on this challenge has stayed with them ever since. As luck would have it, Ruedi had been informed about a possible opening at exactly the right time, shortly before the activity was put out for tender again. They can now live their dream job in the field of research, at the same time at an altitude of 3,454 metres above sea level, every day.