Switzerland Tops the Ski World
The train to Kleine Scheidegg (Gerry Wingenbach)
The scenery is straight off a postcard—the extraordinary Swiss Alps, the sculpted slopes, the sense of getting so much of the world in one big gulp. It’s always a thrilling adventure. With skis or snowboard in hand you board the cogwheel train at Grindelwald, bound for the ski area of Kleine Scheidegg, directly beneath the Eiger’s infamous North Wall in the heart of the Jungfrau region. The cogwheel train grinds its way up the valley to the Eiger’s North Wall and, under the cover of several avalanche tunnels, delivers you straight to the jaw-dropping views at Kleine Scheidegg. A day like this can make your year.
There’s nothing even remotely like it at North American ski resorts. And that’s only one of the reasons why every skier and snowboarder should make a winter pilgrimage to Switzerland. The high mountain villages offer reliable snow, there’s a wide choice of resorts, and they’re easy to get to. Before leaving home get yourself a Swiss Pass. You can get anywhere you want in this Alpine country via rail, bus, lake steamer, or cable car. It may be the only country in the world where you don’t need a car.
It takes about a half hour to get to the handful of hotels, restaurants, train station, and ski lifts that comprise Kleine Scheidegg. From there, ski runs lead back to Grindelwald or down the Lauterbrunnen Valley to Wengen and, by riding another cogwheel train, Mürren. Both are historic, car-free villages lying across from each other. Most of the slopes are long, undulating intermediate terrain, where skiers and riders look like heroes on forgiving snow.
But this isn’t a journey I make alone. My always-smiling Swiss friend Marina acts as guide. And in the evening, after work, her friend Sammy listens to our stories over rich red wine. He gives warm advice and always reaches for the check.
“When I first came here I was stunned,” Marina said. “Here you have everything; the mountains, the meadows, and when I wake up I see the Eiger.”
The Jungfrau region sits at the top of Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland, surrounded by many of Europe’s largest glaciers and most famous mountains, including the granite Jungfrau, the Mönch, as well as the Eiger. The skiing plays out in three, interconnected areas offering more than 125 miles of maintained slopes sprawling across four mountains.
Another ski area, First (pronounced “Feerst” and meaning “peak”), is located directly above Grindelwald and has had an international following for more than fifty years. The three-mile-long access gondola climbs the slopes of 9,607-foot Schwarzhorn. From there, other ski lifts fan out across the south-facing mountain, serving a snowy playground for intermediate-level skiers and snowboarders as well as vast backcountry opportunities. The slopes back to Grindelwald cover a whopping Whistler-like vertical.
On the other side of Grindelwald, in a small settlement called Grund, a gondola rises more than 4,000-vertical feet, opening up vast terrain in the Männlichen ski area, which drops down the backside of the mountain into the Lauberhorn Valley.
“This is your chance to ski the Lauberhorn World Cup downhill course,” Sammy said one evening.
The next morning, Marina introduces me to Urs Rabar, a man with impeccable manners and handsome bearing. He is a former World Cup downhill champion and one-time coach of the Swiss alpine team. (“It was a great life,” he said. “I’d do it over.”) He remembers your name and looks you in the eye when he speaks. After the windup of introductions comes the pitch. He leads us down the Lauberhorn, the longest run on the demanding international race circuit. Not surprisingly, he’s the prettiest skier you could ever watch in the prettiest place you could ever visit. The Lauberhorn morphs into my favorite ski run in the world. At the end of the day, I follow Urs back down the marshmallow-white meadows to Grund, skiing through farms that scroll by like a Monet painting, but offering fragrance and soul.
Above it all, the Eiger, which pierces the sky at 13,026 feet, remains an indelible achievement for climbers. Watching their attempts to scale the treacherous North Wall has been a spectator sport on the sun-drenched outdoor decks of Kleine Scheidegg ever since Heinrich Harrer’s first ascent in 1938. While we skied the Lauberhorn, the bodies of two young Swiss climbers dead from exposure were taken off the ice-bound mountain, the helicopter appearing like a fly inside a crystal chandelier. You pay for more than you can afford to lose up there. But along with kindness, tolerance, and commitment, pushing the frontiers of adventure are what separate people from animals. That evening with Sammy we toasted to the adventurous spirit of the Swiss.
Grindelwald, a thousand-year-old village of 4,000 inhabitants, is as appealing as the ski slopes. You can almost reach out and touch the tumbling glaciers. There are miles and miles of maintained winter walking paths and incomparable sledding hills, including the world’s longest toboggan run—nine miles from First to Grindelwald. More than 160 farms are still producing in the area. I’ve been here in the summer when the clouds were low and the only sound around was the clang of cowbells. Farmers get royalties from the cable-car companies that span their meadows.
Another adventure waits aboard the cogwheel train at Kleine Scheidegg bound for the Jungfraujoch, the highest rail station in Europe. The narrow-gauge train winds its way through a paperclip tunnel into the mass of the Eiger and the Mönch, climbing to 11,333 feet and the airy platform known as the Top of Europe. Two stops en route allow passengers to get out and walk across the tunnel to peer through observation windows. One stop, the Eiger Wall station, is popular as an escape route for Eiger North Wall climbers in trouble, and a departure point for mountain rescues.
At the Top of Europe, you can’t raise your eyes without looking a hundred miles. Views take in the 14-mile Aletsch Glacier, the longest in the Alps. Neighboring Germany and France are visible, too.
Below, perched across from each other, both a mile high and separated by the spectacular Lauterbrunnen Valley, Wengen and Mürren nestle beneath the glacier-ridden 13,642-foot Jungfrau, next to the Mönch and the Eiger. The villages are centuries old, but they hold a commanding grip on today’s skiers who flock to Switzerland’s Jungfrau region. Both resorts link with the myriad other lifts of the region, including the slopes above nearby Grindelwald.
Along with St. Anton in Austria, Mürren lays claim to being the birthplace of modern skiing. It was here in 1922 that British ski aficionado Sir Arnold Lunn organized the first-ever timed slalom race. And the tradition continues. Every January since 1928, the Inferno citizen’s ski race has been held in lofty Mürren. Competitors start high above the village near the 10,000-foot-high pyramidal summit of Schilthorn. More than 1,800 skiers race the 10-mile-long course, starting down in 15-second intervals over a six-hour period. It’s one of the oldest and largest downhill ski races in the world.
The world’s longest continuous cogwheel railway leads to the town, whose two main streets are lined with welcoming chalets and shops along with centuries-old cowsheds.
Mürren, which would satisfy an artist as well as a skier, has its own 33 miles of ski terrain falling away from the summit of Schilthorn. At the top cable car terminus there is a revolving restaurant made famous in the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. In the novel, Ian Fleming called the place Piz Gloria, and the name has stuck. The restaurant’s one-hour revolution showcases 40 glaciers and 200 snow-covered mountains that resemble folded linen napkins. A jumble of rock outcrops, ski trails, and lifts crisscross the runs that lead down from the restaurant.
Wengen lies on a sheltered terrace facing southwest and, along with Mürren, is one of the few Swiss villages not accessible by road. Cars are left at a multi-story parking garage in Lauterbrunnen, fifteen minutes away on the Wengernalp Railway.
But now the ski season is swinging towards summer in Switzerland. Take advantage of something called SwitzerlandMobility, an alliance of national private and public entities offering self-guided, non-motorized, nonpolluting travel on more than 12,000 miles of trails for hiking, biking, in-line skating, and paddling. The network even has 1,200 partner hotels and restaurants. They've planned it all for you—just choose your next Swiss active adventure.
Check out my video of some of last week’s memories. And if you’d like to see my summer-time memories of Grindelwald, here's a summer video. Below is a slideshow of some of the photos I took on this last ski trip to Switzerland:
Gerry Wingenbach has been our resident ski blogger for this past ski season and we're very grateful to him for keeping us informed of ski deals, ski events, the best places to ski, and most of all, giving us inspiration to get out on the slopes.
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Been trying to rally the troops with this one. COMCAST does not currently carry The Ski Channel. I am a subscriber and can not watch the channel. If you care about The Ski Channel or are just a mountain enthusiast at large, please visit the link below, post a message, and visit the link to send Comcast a message regarding carrying The Ski Channel.
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Posted by: joe | November 28, 2009 at 07:34 PM
Thanks for this nice article. I have heard and read lot about luxury ski resorts and other attaractions of Switzerland . But alas! I have never been to Switzerland .
Recently I have found a website which contains all kind of travel information about Switzerland . Here is the link given below. Anybody interested can check this out:
http://www.high-end-travel-switzerland.com/swiss-ski-resorts.html
Posted by: Arpita Barua | June 09, 2009 at 01:37 AM
Wow! this would be great.
I love going to the ski resorts in WV as they seem to mimic the Swiss alps and ski lodges.
They are really beautiful but I can't imagine the real places.
Posted by: ForestWander Nature Photography | April 07, 2009 at 05:57 AM