Felsputzer Blog backstory:
In 1997, Chris Witwer decided her college education wouldn’t be complete until she visited Europe. While she was there she read Washington Irving’s description of Westminster Abbey — from the cloister. At Notre Dame, she left a friend’s poem of the same name. Then she chain-smoked her way through Paris’ Left Bank.
In Salzburg Austria, Chris became obsessed with understanding the term “felsputzer” while touring the catacombs. The tour guide, who was only reading a script in English and didn’t speak it well, said that a landslide in 1669 killed 220 people below,but that since then the “felsputzers” have come every year to polish the mountain. There hasn’t been another landslide since. But she didn’t know how to explain any further.
Who are these felsputzers, and how the heck does polishing a mountain prevent landslides? Chris took her questions to an English bookshop owner who, in turn, referred her to a number of locals. Eventually Chris found herself accidentally interviewing for the position of “felsputzer” with the Salzburg city officer responsible for hiring them. He thought she was applying for a job and promptly turned her down based on gender. But when Chris stretched the truth a whole lot & told him she was a novelist, he opened up.
The term felsputzer is roughly translated to mean “mountain polisher” or “mountain cleaner.” Felsputzers hang from ropes while inspecting the rock face for cracks and fissures. They remove loose rock and fill in any cracks using masonry techniques. Filling in the cracks keeps water/ice out, and minimizes erosion.
Chris’ questions were finally answered, and it only took 3 days and one good lie!
The Felsputzer Blog is hereby dedicated to everyone who has ever researched a simple question without the benefit of the internet. Our blog entries will be limited to things we learn about –or learn more about– on the web. In other words, everything!
Mike Black joined Felsputzer as a guest blogger in August 2011. He’s just moved to Seattle and plans to publish some of his observations about moving to Jet City while figuring out how and what he wants to write. Welcome, Mike!
