By dawn, it was standing nearly as tall as the Tower of Pisa. The sky was overcast, the valley full of mist, as technicians and villagers set about preparing the craft for launch. “It’s cold, and there is just no movement in the air.” One early morning in 1999, during such a pause, several dozen locals stood in a field near the church, in front of an eighteen-thousand-pound contraption of nylon, aluminum, and steel-a balloon. It is, according to the Swiss aeronaut Bertrand Piccard, “as if the mountain is breathing.”īefore dawn, “there is this pause between breaths,” Piccard continued. As the valley warms, the air in the village begins to rise, creating a circulatory effect: cold air rushes down the slopes to replace what has risen, only to be warmed and lifted up into the sky. Then light descends into the valley, bathing the ground in radiation. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.Įach winter morning, in the Swiss alpine village of Château-d’Oex, the first sunlight appears as jagged slivers on the edges of surrounding peaks.
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