It's hardly surprising that the Patrouille des Glaciers is known as the world’s toughest ski tour race. The 4500 participants spend months preparing for it and need enormous stamina and discipline. This also applies to everyone else who takes part, especially the employees of Swisscom, which had to set up its own temporary 2G and 4G networks in the most unappealing high Alpine conditions at 3000 metres about sea level, networks for both its company radio and, as a complete novelty, a network for the Alpine Internet of Things. In all, more than three tonnes of equipment – base stations, antennas, repeaters and other telecom equipment – was transported up into the mountains.