Amuse Bouche

greeting from the collection

Amuse Bouche is a format for providing information about the collection, thanks to a display case in las alps restaurant that presents a regularly changing display of spectacular objects from the holdings. The mini podcast of the same name relates the stories that lie behind the collection highlights and explains what makes them so unique.

With a Syringe and Chocolate: A Doctor on Expedition
What are medical instruments doing at ALPS? And why did a doctor on the Swiss Dhaulagiri expedition need chocolate? Who was he, and how did he prepare himself and the medical support for the expedition? For once, the main alpine protagonists of the 1958 expedition are not in the spotlight, but rather a vital companion: the Swiss doctor, biochemist, and ETH professor Kaspar Winterhalter (1934-2023).

Thanks to the generous donation from the Winterhalter family, numerous objects and documents related to the expedition became part of the ALPS collection after his passing.

Would you like to learn more about the medical preparations for the expedition? Listen to the latest fifth episode of the Amuse-Bouche podcast.

Fame and Metal
What remains of a successful sports career? In 1972, at just 17 years old, Marie-Theres Nadig surprised everyone by winning two Olympic gold medals, becoming a ski star. Despite numerous trophies, cups, and medals, these material symbols meant little to her. Today, the ALPS preserves some of her trophies, but the question arises: which ones are truly important? And how can they best document Nadig's achievements and her significance in skiing? What happens to the remaining trophies?

Finally at the summit!
The summit awaits at the end of the ascent - and those who have made it to the top like to share this with others. Many mountain peaks therefore have a summit book in which mountaineers immortalize themselves. A box, books and a metal stele can be found as summit books in the collection of the ALPS and show how the form of immortalization has changed.

Living together, managing life together
These days, duties and privileges within a community are mostly distributed and documented digitally. In a time before writing, however, objects with etched marks performed this role. These “tallies”, or Tesseln are evidence of the nineteenth century, relating how people lived together, the challenges they faced, and what their everyday lives looked like.

From the glacier to the museum
The Oberaar glacier released it after 29 years – and the cantonal police in Bern sent it back to its owner: Daniel Hofstetter’s rucksack. The rucksack is a testament to the 1990s, bearing witness to the dangers of mountaineering and providing evidence not only of the power of nature but also of climate change, which is causing the glacier to melt. The find shows how materials are eroded by glacier, sand, and dirt.

Audio available only in German