SWITZERLAND.
SION
1976
COMMEMORATIVE SWISS MEDAL
MARCHE
COMMEMORATIVE
SION
HERMAN GEIGER
[ Excellent Condition ! ]
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HERMANN GEIGER
1914 - 1966
Hermann Geiger (27 October 1914 - 26 August 1966) was a Swiss aviator and search and rescue pilot whose heroic actions gave him national hero status in Switzerland. Known as "The Glacier Pilot," he pioneered the art of landing his Piper PA-18 on glaciers in the Swiss Alps like no other. In over 600 rescue missions, he managed to land his specially modified aircraft under extreme conditions on snow-covered glaciers. He often had to carry the injured people by himself in subzero temperatures and blizzard conditions to get them safely aboard his plane. Geiger once said "To save lives, you must risk your own." He died from injuries suffered in a fatal collision with a glider at the age of 52. In aviation history, Geiger is the first man to successfully land on a glacier and one of the first mountain rescuers.
Geigers was from Sion in Valais, Switzerland, the son of a farmer. His love of flying began at the age of ten when he went to an aviation club for the first time. He began working as a mechanic when he was fifteen at a garage. He built his own glider and took gliding lessons as a young man. In 1940, he trained to become a police officer, giving flying lessons in his spare time.
He was the first man to land his plane on Kanderfirm, a 7,800 foot glacier in Switzerland. He modified his Piper plane with retractable metal skies, enabling him, after much practice, to land on glaciers and mountains where most would not dare. On 16 July 1953, he also successfully landed on the summit of Monte Rosa glacier.
Geiger was known as the Eagle from Sion or King of Mountain Pilots. He wrote a book: Alpine Pilot first published in 1956 and translated into English by Alan Tuppen It is a concise and interesting personal account of his achievement and joy of flying and has a real place in Alpine history alongside all the best.
Hermann Geiger was a world-renowned Gletscherpilot and one of the founders of the Swiss Air Rescue (Rega). He was the inventor of a landing technique for snow slopes to rescue climbers in distress. He led more than 600 daring rescues with his single-engine Piper PA-18 through the high mountains.
In 1958, he played himself in semi-documentary Swiss feature film called SOS Glacier Pilot in 1959.
Geiger was also a member of the Segelfluggruppe Winterthur.
On 26, August 1966, he was flying with a student at the Sion airport when they collided with a glider. Geiger died from injuries as a result of the accident. A few days later, many people attended his funeral.
SION SWITZERLAND
Sion (French: [sjɔ̃]; German: Sitten [ˈzɪtn̩]; Italian: Seduno; Latin: Sedunum) is a Swiss town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Valais and of the district of Sion. As of December 2019 it had a population of 34,710 (known as Sédunois(es)).
On 17 January 1968, the former municipality of Bramois merged into the municipality of Sion. On 1 January 2013, the former municipality of Salins merged into the municipality of Sion, and on 1 January 2017, Les Agettes did the same.
Landmarks in Sion include the Basilique de Valère and the Château de Tourbillon. Sion has an airfield for civilian and military use, which serves as a base for air rescue missions.
Prehistoric settlement
Sion is one of the most important pre-historic sites in Europe. The alluvial fan of the river Sionne, the rocky slopes above the river and, to a lesser extent, Valeria and Tourbillon hills have been settled nearly continuously since antiquity. The oldest trace of human settlement comes from 6200 BC during the late Mesolithic. Around 5800 BC early Neolithic farmers from the Mediterranean settled in Sion. The settlements remained small until about 4500 BC, during the middle Neolithic, when the number of settlements increased sharply. To support the population increase, farming and grazing spread throughout the valley. They also began burying their dead in Chablandes-type stone burial cists with engraved anthropomorphic stelae. The individual graves changed at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC in large, dry stone wall communal tombs (such as the Dolmen of Le Petit-Chasseur). During the Beaker culture period in the second half of the third Millennium, dolmens were built once again, but they were smaller and had no podium. Stelae continued to be carved, though these were rich with geometric patterns and sometimes built out of old dolmen. At the beginning of the Early Bronze Age (around 2300 BC) the last stelae were erected.
The early settlements have been well documented. There are huts from the Middle Neolithic period found near Le Petit Chasseur and under Ritz Avenue. Late Neolithic sites have been found at Bramois and the early Early Bronze Age site is at Le Petit Chasseur. The Middle Bronze Age, however, is poorly documented. From the subsequent epochs, the great necropolis of Don Bosco (the "aristocrat" tumulus of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age) and the necropolis of Sous-le-Scex from the La Tène culture.
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