click to enlarge
click to enlarge 
click to enlarge
SWITZERLAND’S SENSE OF SNOW: THE FUTURE OF WINTER SPORTS
FROM NOVEMBER 6 TO NOVEMBER 9, 2007
NEW YORK CITY, BOSTON
“Switzerland’s Sense of Snow” – Swiss innovation in the area of snow and winter sports
At the beginning of November swissnex Boston organized a series of events with the goal to showcase Switzerland’s strengths in innovation in the area of snow and winter sports. Representatives from zai ski, Empa – Materials Science and Technology, and Swiss Ropeways gave presentations in New York City and Boston and together with swissnex Boston had a booth at the Blizzard, the annual ski season kick-off party with more than 500 attendees organized by the Boston Ski & Sports Club (BSSC).
On November 9, over 120 people attended the presentations held at the Goethe-Institut situated in Boston’s Back Bay. Simon Jacomet, founder and Chief Creative Officer of zai ski presented his newest invention: a ski made of stone. People were astonished at the characteristics of granite: enormous compressive strength, dynamic resilience while at the same time retaining its shape, and very important: stone damps out vibrations. To optimally exploit all these positive characteristics, it must be made bendable, which was achieved by enclosing stone in carbon fiber.
Rene Rossi, a researcher at Empa – Materials Science and Technology (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research) talked about the effects of sports clothing on human body temperature control, a process scientifically known as Thermoregulation. In contrast to conventional sports suits, different parts of the new garment are made of different materials to suit the various parts of the body, a technique called “body mapping”. In order to stimulate human perspiration the institute has developed its own sweating robot called Sam (“sweating agile mannequin”), an articulated dummy that perspires through innumerable minute openings just like a human being. In addition, he presented on a variety of nanotechnological procedures in textiles and on future applications.
Marc Ziegler from Swiss Ropeways (Seilbahnen Schweiz), the association linking Switzerland's 450 main cable car and ski-lift operators, talked about its newest education program and safety on the slopes. With its 219 reversible ropeways, 116 gondolas, 329 chairlifts and 1030 surface lifts Swiss Ropeways carried 310 million people in 2006. One year ago, it started the world's first government-recognized qualification for cableway employees in a drive to introduce common standards and improve quality. In addition, Marc talked about his function as a helicopter rescue specialist and the different procedures for evacuating people that got stuck on gondolas and chairlifts.