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Well with the half-term groups now safely settled into their resorts, I can now draw breath from what has been an extremely interesting few weeks. The season did not start well. With the horror winter of 2011 fresh in everyone’s minds, the lack of snow was clearly a concern again. In November Saas Fee sent round their Newsletter and put our minds at rest at Ski Gower. Once again the choice of our high Swiss resorts was already proving itself, as it has done every year since we began in 1959. Here is an extract from their Newsletter of 11th November 2011
Wow! But as we know the weather in The Alps can change so quickly and our group in Davos from 2nd to 9th January 2012 certainly experienced this. The locals could not remember snow fall like it since 1999 and it just continued to snow and snow and snow. They had a great week! In fact it had snowed so much in January and early February that we now began to fear for the travel arrangements for our groups with Heathrow have flights cancelled the previous weekend and chaos on our own roads potentially posing a threat to even getting out of the U.K. However, just in time the weather both in the U.K. and in The Alps settled down. All our flights left on time and with the predicted threat of road travel chaos after Thursday night’s snow storms not materialising our Friday and Saturday coach departures left unhindered for the chilly crossing of France to The Alps. They are now enjoying one of the best week’s skiing for many a year with wall to wall sunshine interspersed with a little top up of snow in the middle of the week. Peter Cook General Manager Monday 13th February 2012
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DavosIt’s snowing! The snow’s here at last. It’s been snowing in Davos Klosters since Sunday night. By the end of the week there’ll be half a metre of snow. Mother Nature has been kind and on Sunday night gave us several centimetres of snow. Snow is forecast until the end of the week, so winter-sport fans can look forward to perfect piste conditions at the weekend. Win a weekend The “Love Davos Klosters” campaign is currently running on our Facebook page. Anyone with the Davos Klosters Badge in his/her profile can win a ski weekend. You’ll find exact instructions on our Facebook page under ‘Photo albums’. We are thrilled to receive each and every “declaration of love!” www.facebook.com/davosklosters iEngelberg-TitlisNew this coming winter! - iSki Tracking
Never before has it been so easy to find your way around your vacation destination. Find the best ski rental place, locate friends so you can join them, or find out where the next closest bar is from the ski slope. Just an example of the many things iEngelberg-Titlis can help you with, whether you’re a temporary guest or a full-time resident of this scenic monastery town.
St. Moritz Mobile PortalWhat do you do if you're in St. Moritz and suddenly fancy an Italian meal? What if you want to know which events are taking place or which mountain rail or cableway is running? For Smartphone users St. Moritz has launched a Mobile Portal. This also shows you the way to restaurants etc. on Google Maps. Just enter www.stmoritz.ch and surf away. Essential informationYou will find:
Under this link you will find the contents of the Mobile Portal St. Moritz: The St. Moritz iPhone app is a "must have" for all fans of the Engadine Alpine metropolis. It provides the Event Calendar, Weather, Live Cams, ski conditions & mountain lift status, and much more. App users are also able to enjoy the latest news from St. Moritz and the alpine lifestyle. The app has a GPS-guided sight-seeing guide, lists all major St. Moritz addresses, and contains extensive content about the brand St. Moritz - this includes historical background information, iPhone wallpaper and social media platforms. Where to get the App?The St. Moritz App can be downloaded for free from the App Store. There are two ways for this:
Requirements Engadin St. Moritz iPhone App
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The biggest news this week has come from Saas Fee who have announced a major lift project that will connect Saas Fee with Zermatt. Click below for the full announcement. . . . The exciting thing for our school groups is perhaps not so much the link to Zermatt, but the fact that one of the new lifts is planned to run from the car park, where our coaches drop our students at the entrance to the traffic-free village, to the beginners slopes at the other end of the village, thus saving the 15 min walk through Saas Fee. I am not sure the residents of Saas Fee will be too impressed with this plan as it means that day trip visitors and tourists staying in Saas Grund, Saas Almagell or Saas Balen would not have to walk through Saas Fee and this would surely lead to less being spent in the shops in Saas Fee. Anyway that's not really my concern. The new lift system would basically whisk skiers from the car park to the beginners slopes and then up to Spielboden (replacing the very old bubble cars) and then on to Langfluh and finally to the ridge above Saas Fee, where presumably new pistes and uplift systems on the other side would connect skiers to Zermatt. All this is planned to be up and ready for 2015. If there are any downsides for our school groups, this is going to take some mighty amount of Swiss Francs to pay for it all and so there must be a risk of increased lift prices. However, we would save on the overnight ski/boot storage in Saas Fee, so that could provide a cushion against an increase in lift pass prices. The link to Zermatt sounds wonderful and I am sure will have our ski staff and school staff drooling at the prospect, however, there will of course be a significant premium to pay for access to Zermatt, so we'll have to wait and see how much that is and whether there is some flexibility in the pricing, which would mean that we could perhaps pick and choose how many and which days any of our ski groups could go over the top to Zermatt. Peter Cook General Manager
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Engelberg is a village in the canton of Obwalden in the very heart of Switzerland, close to the cities of Lucerne and Zurich. At approximately 1000 metres above sea-level, the holiday resort offers a very high quality of life in both winter and summer. It is the leading mountain resort (Urner Alps) in central Switzerland. In the Middle Ages, Engelberg was known for the educational accomplishments of its Benedictine monastery, the Engelberg Abbey, whose school was well-known and regarded throughout the country. From the 19th Century, Engelberg became internationally known as a resort and spa, but is today visited as much for skiing as for its clean air. With its combination of modern sports facilities and alpine location, Engelberg is a magnet for both summer and winter tourism. Engelberg is first mentioned as Engilperc in 1122, although the mountain pasture of Trübsee was already exploited collectively before this time. Engelberg is the first large mountain the low pressures hit on their way from the North Sea, resulting in huge snowfalls. Had he come here in the winter, maybe it was the deep snow that the monk Konrad von Sellenbüren fell in love with when he founded the monastery in the village in 1120. Perhaps he made a snow angel and named the place at the end of the valley Engelberg. The monastery is still today active and you will meet monks on the cobbled streets. From 1850, Engelberg became an international vacation resort (mineral water, milk serum and fresh air cures). Many hotels were built by the families Cattani, Hess and Odermatt, pioneers of tourism. From 1872 to 1874, a new, wider road was built, and the Stansstad-Engelberg electric railway was opened in 1898. Hiking and other mountain sports developed at the end of 19th Century and Engelberg first held a winter season in 1903-1904. Since 1913, a funicular railway connects Engelberg to Gerschnialp and, from there, the second cable car in Switzerland (1927) led to Trübsee. The decade preceding the First World War was a period of boom conditions. The widening of the road and the extension of the railway to Luzern (1964) considerably opened up the tourism catchment area of the station and, in 1967, the higher section of the Titlis cable car was opened. Recently, regular conferences in Engelberg came to supplement winter tourism. The highest point in the borders of the town is Mt. Titlis which is 3,239 m (10,627 ft). It is a snow-sure ski resort, with an unusually long season, generally opening for skiing at the start of October and remaining open until the end of May. It's also a major summer resort, with many activities available both at village level and on the mountain. The lift system operates throughout the year, allowing a wide range of walking and cycling trails to be available even to the more fitness-challenged visitor. In recent years, Engelberg has become something of an off-piste mecca, with many winter visitors, particularly from Scandinavia, coming specifically for its many challenging descents. Many of these are accessible from the lift-served ski areas of Titlis or Jochpass, on the predominantly North-facing slopes leading down from Mt Titlis. Engelberg also hosts a round of the ski jumping world cup.
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Votive offerings, swords and needles from the Bronze Age, were found at the base of the springs in St. Moritz, which indicate that the Celts had already discovered them. St. Moritz is first mentioned around 1137-39 as ad sanctum Mauricium. The town was named after Saint Maurice, a Coptic Orthodox and Roman Catholic saint. Pilgrims travelled to Saint Mauritius, the church of the springs, where they drank from the blessed, bubbling waters of the Mauritius springs in the hopes of being healed. In 1519, the Medici pope, Leo X, promised full absolution to anyone making a pilgrimage to the church of the springs. In the 16th century, the first scientific treatises about the St. Moritz mineral springs were written. In 1535, Paracelsus, the great practitioner of nature cures, spent some time in St. Moritz. Although it received some visitors during the summer, the origins of the winter resort only date back to September 1864. Birthplace of winter tourism At the beginning of September 1864, St. Moritz hotel pioneer, Johannes Badrutt and the owner of The Kulm Hotel, made the following wager with four British summer guests: they should return in winter and if things were not to their liking, he would bear the cost of the journey from London and back. If they found St. Moritz attractive in winter, he would invite them to stay as his guests for as long as they wished. His guests, familiar with the cold, damp English winter, could not begin to imagine that it could be different in the Swiss Alps. We now know that Johannes Badrutt won his bet; the guests were astonished by the sunny weather and the majestic winter landscape. They didn't depart until springtime, replete with suntans, and enthusiastically recounted their Alpine winter experience to friends back home. They were the first winter tourists in the Alps and discovered a whole new world: the white winter holiday. The first tourist office in Switzerland was established the same year in the town. St. Moritz developed rapidly in the late nineteenth century and the first electric light in Switzerland was installed in 1878 at the Kulm Hotel and the first curling tournament on the continent held in 1880. The first European Ice-Skating Championships were held at St. Moritz in 1882 and first golf tournament in the Alps held in 1889. The first bob run and bob race was held in 1890 and by 1896 St. Moritz became the first town in the Alps to install electric trams and opened the Palace Hotel. In 1906, a horse race was held on snow (1906) and on the frozen lake (1907). The first ski school in Switzerland was established in St. Moritz in 1929. In 1928 St. Moritz hosted the 1928 Winter Olympic Games and the stadium still stands today. It later hosted the 1948 Winter Olympic Games. St. Moritz has hosted over 20 FIBT World Championships, four FIS Alpine World Ski Championships (1934/1948/1974/2003) over 40 Engadin Ski Marathons since 1969 and over 30 Engadin Ski Marathons since 1978 In 1959 St. Moritz witnessed a less famous first. This was the year that a college physical education lecturer from Nuneaton visited St. Moritz. He was very impressed with St. Moritz as a Winter ski resort for his students but not so impressed with the instruction provided by the locals and an idea was born. A year later he returned to St.Moritz with his students and together with some other enthusiastic sports teachers from the UK education system taught his students to ski. In 2012 over 50 years on Gower will use the same youth hostel accommodation in St. Moritz albeit it has had more than a few licks of paint in between. Peter Cook 12th August 2011
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Fiesch is a municipality in the district of Goms in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Nearby Fiescheralp is administered by Fiesch and is accessible by the Eggishorn lift. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site for its view of the Jungfrau-Aletsch Protected Area. The Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area (officially Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch) is located in south-western Switzerland between the cantons of Berne and Valais. It is a mountainous region in the easternmost side of the Bernese Alps, containing the northern wall of Jungfrau and Eiger, and the largest glaciated area in western Eurasia, comprising the Aletsch Glacier. It has a length of about 23 km and covers more than 120 square kilometres (more than 45 square miles). The great Aletsch Glacier shows considerable ice cover. At the Konkordiaplatz, it has an ice cover of more than 900 m, but as it moves to the south, the greater part of the ice melts, gradually decreasing the cover to around 150 m.The Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area is the first World Natural Heritage site in the Alps, it was inscribed in 2001 The culminating point is the Finsteraarhorn which, with its 4,270 metres, is also the highest mountain in the Bernese Alps. 8 other summits above 4,000 metres are located in the area: Aletschhorn, Jungfrau, Mönch, Schreckhorn, Gross Fiescherhorn, Hinter Fiescherhorn, Grünhorn and Lauteraarhorn. The summit ridge separating the cantons of Valais and Berne is the main watersheds of Europe. The principal valleys on the north side run due north below the precipitous 20 kilometer north wall of the Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger, thence to the Aar, a tributary of the Rhine which runs into the North Sea. The southern valleys drain into the southwest running valley of the Rhone which flows into the Mediterranean sea. The climate of the region is strongly influenced by the height of the mountains. They form a barrier between the wet sub-oceanic climate of the north and the dryer climate of the south-facing Valais slopes. On the north side the rainfall exceeds 2,200 mm, most falling in summer, but on the south side it is only 1,000 mm, with more falling in winter. The Aletsch Glacier is composed by three smaller glaciers converging at Concordia, where its thickness is estimated to be near 1 km. It then continues towards the Rhone valley before giving birth to the Massa river. The Bettmerhorn and Eggishorn which are both accessible whilst skiing in Fiesch are popular view points and are accessible by cable car. The Massa river can be crossed since 2008 by a suspension bridge, thus allowing hikes between the left and the right part of the glacier. From the Konkordiaplatz, the Aletsch Glacier has a width of approximately 1.5 km and moves at a rate of 180 m per year to the southeast on course with the Rhône valley, bordering the Dreieckhorn in the west and the great Wannenhorn in the east. It then takes a great right turn and bends ever closer to the southwest, running through the edge of the Eggishorn and Bettmerhorn of the Rhone valley. The lowest part of the great Aletsch Glacier is largely covered with detritus of the lateral and medial moraines. The glacier's toe currently lies about 1560 m high, far beneath the local tree line. From it springs the Massa stream, which flows though the Massa Canyon and is used to generate hydroelectric power. It continues through the upper half of the Brig, eventually entering into the Rhone. During the last glacial periods, the Aletsch Glacier was much larger than now. 18,000 years ago the lower part of the ridge, between Riederalp and the glacier, was completely covered by ice. Only the summits of the Bettmerhorn, Eggishorn and the Fusshörner were above the glacier. After an important retreat, the glacier again advanced 11,000 years ago during the last glacial period. The glacier reached the Rhone valley, and its ice the Riederfurka. Remaining moraines are still visible in the Aletsch Forest. Since the last glaciation, the glacier generally retreated. However slight climatic changes happened and, in 1860, the glacier was 3 km longer and the ice level 200 m higher.
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The current settlement of the Davos area started back in High Middle Ages with the immigration of Rhaeto-Romans. The village of Davos is first mentioned in 1213 as Tavaus.From about 1280 the barons of Vaz allowed German-speaking Walser colonists to settle down, and conceded them extensive self-administration rights, causing Davos to become the largest Walser settlement area in eastern Switzerland. Natives still speak a dialect that is atypical for Graubünden. From the middle of the 18th century, Davos became a popular destination for the ailing because the micro-climate in the high valley was deemed excellent by doctors and recommended for lung disease patients. Robert Louis Stevenson, who suffered from tuberculosis, wintered in Davos in 1880 at the recommendation of his Edinburgh physician Dr. George Balfour. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote an article about skiing in Davos in 1899. In the "natural ice" era of winter sports, Davos, and the Davos Eisstadion was a mecca for speed skating. Many international championships were held here, and many world records were set, beginning with Peder Østlund who set four records in 1898.Subsequently, Davos became a famous ski resort, especially frequented by tourists from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.After peaking in the 1970s and 1980s, the city settled down as a leading but less high-profile tourist attraction. The municipality In terms of area was the largest city in Switzerland (until the merged municipality of Glarus Süd in 2010) and the largest in the canton of Graubünden. It consists of the village of Davos which is made up of five sections (Davos-Dorf, Davos-Platz, Frauenkirch, Glaris and Monsteinand) and the hamlets of Laret, Wolfgang, Clavadel and Spina in the main valley. In the side valleys there are additional hamlets including; Flüela, Dischma and Sertig. Davos hosts annual meetings of the World Economic Forum.Every March World leaders in politics and finance gather to discuss the important issues of the year in this Swiss mountain town. Peter Cook 24th June 2011
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The Saas Valley has been populated since the time of the Celts, but it was Roman emperor Augustus who united the Valais with Italy, founded its first towns and set up the trade route across the Alps, Monte Moro and the Antrona Pass.
Coincidentally this was the same year that Matthias Zurbriggen was born (15 May 1856 in Saas-Fee). He was one of the great 19th-century alpinists and mountain guides. He climbed throughout the Alps, and also in South America, the Himalayas and New Zealand. He made a considerable number of first ascents, the most well known of which was Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas. Climbers revered him as one of the greatest of all alpine guides. His family still live in the Saas Valley today. One of his descendants Pirmin Zubriggen dominated ski racing in the 1980s wining two Olympic golds, 4 World Championship Golds as well as 4 season triumphs in the combined disciplines of Downhill, Super G, Giant Slalom and Slalom. His sister Heidi also won several World titles and today he and his parents own a hotel in Saas Almagell and one in Zermatt For much of the 20th century, Switzerland’s Saastal Valley was inaccessible to most of the world. But in 1951, when a two-lane road linking Saas Grund to the village of Saas Fee was completed, skiers caught on fast: Here was access to some of the western Alps’—and Europe’s—most consistent year-round skiing. No cars are allowed to enter Saas Fee (they have to be parked in special car parks outside); only small electric vehicles operate on the streets (and some petrol-driven garbage trucks). The decision to exclude most motor vehicles was made by the village at the time of the construction of the road from Saas Grund in 1951.
The resort features the highest underground funicular railway in the world up to the skiing area and the highest revolving restaurant in the world at 3,500 m (11,500 feet). Houses are still required to be 40 percent wooden, which is why the village often seems to blend in nicely with its surroundings. Trivia: Saas-Fee was one location where the video for Wham!'s hit single "Last Christmas" was filmed. Peter Cook 17th June 2011
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I think every year the 1st of June is officially the end of the ski season for us. What most teachers don't see and quite rightly don't need to see is the clearing up of all the details to do with the previous ski season. However, by June all the odd bills that trickle in late from the Alps have largely been dealt with and we can draw a happy veil under the 2010/2011 Winter ski season. So what were the highlights of Winter 2010/2011? Thinking back to last June we were very worried about the number of groups that were booking and the numbers within the groups looking poor, but as in previous seasons both figures pulled through to make Winter 2010/2011 one of the best on record for Ski Gower. In December we had some great early season skiing with groups in Davos including a new group from an International School in Zambia, which was a bit of a bonus. They just about coped with the cold apparently and are looking forward to a repeat performance next December. The poor snowfall in the Alps did not bother our groups in February, who travelled to the high altitude resorts of Davos, Engelberg, Fiesch and Saas Fee. Other groups with other companies had there issues in February and some holidays were even called off on the day before departure. Even for those of us on the inside of the travel industry it is impossible to know what is going on at other companies. The only advice that I can give is make sure that they are ABTA members and if you are flying they have a CAA licence. If you book with foreign companies you also need to make sure of the above. N.B. if you are arranging your own holidays then beware that your suppliers (hotels, coach companies etc) could go bust on you and you won't be covered, so try and pay as little deposit as you can just in case. If they are ABTA then you are safe so far as compensation and repatriation are concerned, so it's hard for you to know which companies are in trouble and which aren't. The only inside tip I can provide is be very watchful of the deposit payments. A typical initial deposit will be in the £100 region and a second deposit could be between £100 and £150. If however you are being asked for 000s of £s for deposits then that is a clue that the company might be looking for cash to prop itself up with. There will be exceptions, one being where budget flight operators have to be paid up front. Ok that's enough of that! The real highlight for us at February and at Easter was our new groups raving over our British Ski Staff. It's like they have been travelling to the Alps for many years and suddenly they have discovered where the sweetie jar was hidden. With Easter being so late April was extremely difficult. Our groups in Saas Fee were absolutely fine. The groups in Fiesch started early in the morning and finished a bit earlier in the afternoon, but were basically OK and the groups in Les Diablerets were saved by Glacier 3000. I am glad that I don't work for other operators who are frequenting much lower resorts. That would have been a nightmare for all concerned. So here we are again, June and worrying about next year's bookings and numbers in groups.With a repeat tour from Kenya already booked and an enquiry from a School in the Middle East the World is indeed getting smaller by the minute. Don't panic UK customers we're thrilled to work with schools again in 2012 that we have been working with for years and we also have some new schools bubbling under too. Great news this morning though Sea France have just confirmed their February half-term Channel Crossings with us. I have been in this industry since 1991 and for this to happen in June is unheard of. We usually have to wait until the Autumn at least. So well done to Sea France !!!!!! Peter Cook Ski Gower Manager 8th June 2011
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