Melbourne survivor of Interlaken canyoning disaster writes book

A Melbourne mum who survived the Swiss canyoning disaster which swept 21 adventurers to their deaths 20 years ago is still living with the physical and mental impacts of the tragedy. Now, she’s using her “survivor’s guilt” to help others rocked by trauma.

Tiffany Johnson will this week return to Switzerland with her husband and kids to show them what she survived. Picture: Supplied

Twenty years ago, Tiffany Johnson survived a horrific accident that took the lives of 21 others, including 14 Australians.

The Chelsea resident, 21 at the time, was on a “rite of passage trip” to Europe on a Contiki tour and decided to take part in the optional activity of canyoning in Switzerland.

It was to be a fateful decision.

Canyoning is a popular activity in Switzerland and involves jumping or abseiling into whitewater and bodysurfing. File photo

On July 27, nearing the end of the trip, she joined the group of travellers from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England and Switzerland for an adventure at Saxetenbach Gorge in Interlaken.

The weather took a turn for the worse, resulting in a flood that left Switzerland with the single biggest tragedy in its history.

Before 9/11, the Bali bombings and the Boxing Day tsunami, the Swiss canyoning disaster was the single largest peacetime tragedy offshore in Australian history.

The raging muddy waters swept three guides and eighteen young travellers to their death. Tiffany was one of six survivors.

Rescue workers search for bodies in Saxetenbach Gorge after the 1999 canyoning disaster.

Wedged between a boulder and a log, gasping for air, having sustained life changing injuries, she watched as her dead friends floated by.

She spent one night in a Swiss hospital before flying home, where the extent of her injuries were revealed.

She now has insulin dependent diabetes and requires an insulin pump, because of the blunt trauma she received to her pancreas.

While the physical injuries were significant, she said the mental ones were the hardest to heal.

She met her husband just a few months after returning home and said his support was, and still is, extraordinary.

“I suffered terrible PTSD but got a lot of professional help,” she said.

“A key tool I used was journalling.

“It was a pivotal point to tell my story but it’s still taken me this long to get it out.”

Now 41 and with two children, she recently released a book on her ordeal, called Brave Enough Now.

Tiffany hopes her book will help others struggling to overcome trauma.

She said the “survivor’s guilt” from the accident had been profound and she wrote the book with the aim to help others going through trauma.

“If someone else out there going through a difficult time could make a positive change from hearing my story, then that would be amazing,” she said.

Next week, she will travel back to Switzerland to mark the 20th anniversary, taking her husband and kids with her so they can see what she survived.

Flowers and tributes were placed in the gorge following the accident.

Despite knowing the trip back to Interlaken would be incredibly bittersweet, she also knew it was crucial for her healing.

“I knew I’d go back at some point. I thought I’d go alone but I actually need my family there,” she said.

She said she was still in touch with other survivors and family members of those who had died and was looking forward to the chance to connect and reflect on the 20 years that had passed.

“We need to honour those we lost and honour ourselves and what we went through,” she said.

For more information, visit the website at tiffanyjohnson.com.au/