Swiss Winter Sports in 1925

Skijoring on the lake at St Moritz 1925

Although I have been skiing for over 50 years, I don’t have a great sense of it changing much since I first tumbled down a Scottish mountain. OK, we did wear some uncool ski outfits back then, nobody snowboarded and there were a higher proportion of surface lifts. But I don’t remember it being so different. Largely the same resorts and the same vibe in them.

Track back another 50 years, and what was often called ski running involved very long wooden skis, one stick and a pair of stout leather ski boots. And it was by no means the major attraction for people visiting the Alps in winter.

I’ve been reading “Things Seen in Switzerland in Winter”, written by Charles Domville-Fife in 1925. He writes that interest in visiting Switzerland was divided between those for whom it was termed “The Playground of Europe”, and those who went hoping to recover from tubercolosis.

Until 1946 there was no effective medication to treat tubercolosis, a disease that killed as many as one in four people in England in the 19th Century. Swiss mountain air and sunshine achieved a remarkable recovery rate in the clinics that sprung up in hitherto sleepy hamlets like Davos and Arosa in the late nineteenth century. And the therapeutic benefits were enjoyed as much, or even more, in the winter.

St Moritz had also become a popular destination for its winter sun and the many diversions organised in the sophisticated hotels there – the hotelier Badrutt taking a lot of credit for popularising winter holidays in the Engadine. In 1873 for the first time St Moritz recorded more winter visitors than summer ones.

One English visitor to Switzerland in the late nineteenth century was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who stayed in Davos where his wife was recuperating from tuberculosis. Ever impatient to be doing something, he imported some skis from Norway (where skiing had long been a practical means of transport) and became the first person to ski from Davos to Arosa – still a popular back country route. In 1893 he wrote an article in the English press of his experiences and helped popularise what was to diverge from Norwegian ski techniques to become what we now know as the sport of downhill skiing.

Skiing was by no means the only winter sport that became popular in Switzerland. Domville-Fife records that skating was introduced as a winter sport in 1876 (from England), curling (from Scotland) in 1882, tobogganing (from Canada) in 1884, ice hockey (also from Canada) in 1992 and the quaint sport of skijoring (from Scandinavia) in 1906.

In the second half of the nineteenth century Switzerland benefitted from a growing electrified rail system, opening up destinations such as the new sanatoria in Montana and Leysin, and new winter sports destinations like Klosters, Celerina, Grindelwald, Wengen, Murren, Gstaad, Villars, Engelberg and Andermatt. Adelboden later emerged as both a health centre and a ski destination, with the world’s first winter sports holiday package organised by Sir Henry Lunn in 1903. Outside of Switzerland, Chamonix and St Anton – both with rail links – were early adopters of sport skiing, St Anton claiming to have founded the first ski club in 1901.

Skiers demonstrate Telemark, Jump Turn and Christiana in St Moritz 1925

Most of the new winter sports were introduced by the British, but soon became popular with the Swiss and visiting Germans. The opening of the cog railways in winter in Grindelwald, Wengen and Villars are attributed to British requests that they be available outside the summer timetable.

It’s noteworthy that, at this time, British tourists tended to come over only in December and January, and what we now largely associate with the peak winter sports period was left to the locals. Domville-Fife declares that “at nearly all the best known resorts the predominance of British people during Christmas and New Year festivities is usually so great that even the Swiss themselves are scarcely seen. It is during this period and for about five weeks afterwards that a sojourn at any of the winter sports centres becomes one of the most delightful experiences of life”.

Domville-Fife, writing in 1925, doesn’t mention a single ski destination in the canton of Valais, now probably the pre-eminent ski region in the world. Champéry, in the Portes du Soleil did not have its first lift access to the slopes until 1939, Verbier’s first lift arrived in 1946, Saas-Fee a popular summer spa destination did not have road access until 1950 and Zermatt, although it has had the Gornergrat cog railway since 1898, was primarily known as a summer destination for climbers, and did not open the railway to the summit during the winter season until 1941. Only Montana (later Crans-Montana), had adopted skiing by 1925, following the opening of the funicular railway in 1911. However the village was still mostly popular for its sanatoria and, from 1906, for golfing.

Skijoring, meanwhile, has its adherents but has achieved only a limited popularity. Although my Swiss mother-in-law recalls skiing to school on skis, I don’t think it looks anything like this today at Aiglon College!

Switzerland - school in the sun 1925.
Share Button

Best Ski Resorts?

A common question amongst winter sports enthusiasts is: what is the best ski resort in the world? Of course there is no correct answer, but many column inches have been dedicated to the question, including on this blog! The Daily Torygraph, which for all its political failings does a good job of covering winter sports, analysed what its readers researched and came up with the following list:

  1. St Anton, Austria
  2. Chamonix, France
  3. Courmayeur, Italy
  4. Les Deux Alpes, France
  5. Val Thorens, France
  6. Les Arcs, France
  7. Morzine, France
  8. La Plagne, France
  9. Val d’Isère, France
  10. Cervinia, Italy
  11. Tignes, France
  12. Mayrhofen, Austria
  13. Zermatt, Switzerland
  14. Méribel, France
  15. Alpe d’Huez, France
  16. Courchevel, France
  17. Kitzbühel, Austria
  18. Lech, Austria
  19. Obergurgl, Austria
  20. Flaine, France

It is an interesting list, dominated by French resorts, perhaps addressing a certain demographic’s idea of what is a good package holiday destination. Nowhere from North America? No Wengen. No Cortina. No Borovets for the budget conscious? Morzine over Avoriaz? Nonetheless a selection of resorts you can’t fault. Not my list though.

Share Button

New Lifts in Switzerland for 2019

The expansion of the Andermatt ski area continues apace with a new lift between Sedrun and Disentis, creating a network of 22 lifts connecting Andermatt, Sedrun and Disentis.

It is a spectacular transformation of what were once three sleepy, relatively isolated but beguiling resorts to create the largest ski resort in Central Switzerland.

Disentis is a fabulous resort in the Rhine valley, now linked to Sedrun.

I have often been frustrated by the difficulties in getting back from Avoriaz to the ChampéryLes Crosets section of the Portes du Soleil ski area. Getting from Switzerland to France has always been relatively easy, but getting back is often difficult because of lift closures or the closure of the notorious Swiss Wall at Chavanette. It should all be a lot easier from 2019 with two new linked 5-seater lifts running from below Avoriaz at Léchère via a new station at Vautna to Pointe de Moissette in Switzerland. There will also be a new red run from Vauntna.

A new 10 seater gondola has been installed in Savognin, taking skiers up to Tigignas in 37 cabins at 2000 people per hour. Season opening on 14th December will see the new lift in operation.

A new terminal opens in Grindelwald, also on 14th December, with a high speed gondola up to the Männlichen ski area.

A Porsche design 6-seat chairlift has been installed at Arosa up to the 2447m Brüggerhorn summit.

Another Porsche design 10-seat gondola will run from Gstaad to the top of the Eggli.

The new 6-seater chairlift at Engelberg linking Engstlenalp to Jochpass has protective hoods and seat heating. The lift carries 2000 people an hour a kilometre in around 4 minutes, with a vertical ascent of 260m.

Linked to the Swiss resort of Samnaun is Ischgl in Austria.

In Ischgl, the new high-speed Velilleck F1 six-seater hooded chairlift goes up the Pardatschgrat ridge, 1,353 m further than its predecessor.

Whilst in Samnaun itself the 8-seater Visnitz N2 is new for the 2019/20 season.

Chamonix has replaced the creaky old cable car from Les Praz to the Flégère ski area with a 10 seater gondola.

Share Button

Speak and Ski like a Native

Most Swiss ski resorts have a local language which, if you are conversant in it, is clearly going to get you around the slopes and hostelries. Other languages may also be catered for – Romansh ski communities tend to understand German and often Italian, Schweizerdeutsch-speaking areas also speak German and often French and English, and a lot of French-speaking resorts have many people who work in tourism able to speak English. Italian resorts in Switzerland are mainly small and you will usually need to speak Italian to make yourself understood.

However there are variations in the language spoken. Schweizerdeutsch, the dialect spoken in most of Switzerland, is very different from High German or Swiss Standard German, and even varies from community to community to the extent that a dialect in one area may be unintelligible in another. Furthermore Swiss Standard German is also distinct from High German in some key regards, and often spoken with additional variances by the Swiss in phrasing and words unfamiliar to a native German speaker.

Italian spoken in Switzerland is very similar to Italian spoken in Italy, with a few words (known as calques), mainly derived from French, that are different.

Swiss French is also close to the French spoken in France, but still has distinct words and phrases, particularly as you move further from the border. The most notable are that in Swiss French 70 is Septante, 80 is usually Huitante (but not in some areas), and 90 is Nonante.

Valais is the canton where Swiss French differs most from standard French, and some of the variances are carried over the French border into the Chamonix area and over into Italy, in Valle D’Aosta. At its most extreme, the French is so distinct from modern French that it represents a patois, with origins in Celtic and Latin languages as well as ancient French.

French patois, like Schweizerdeutsch, varies from community to community. However, unlike Schweizerdeutsch, it has been in decline for decades. One notable exception has been Evolène, in the Val d’Hérens, which has bucked the trend and seen an uptake in usage in recent years.

Share Button