Winterlust by Bernd Brunner

Author:Bernd Brunner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Greystone Books
Published: 2019-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

Matthias Zdarsky, a pioneer of alpine skiing, 1905

Until well into the 1860s, hardly anyone traveled into the Swiss mountains in winter to vacation there. As soon as the first snowflakes fell in late fall, the last of the season’s guests packed their bags—after all, most were there to take the waters or bathe in the mineral springs for their health. However, an entrepreneurial hotel owner, Johannes Badrutt, came up with the idea of challenging the British guests who regularly came in summer to come to his establishment, the Hotel Engadiner Kulm (now called the Kulm Hotel St. Moritz), in winter.

The story goes that Badrutt was sitting in front of the fireplace on a rainy evening in September of 1864 with some guests from London, who were already dreading the foggy winter days back home. He told them that on beautiful days during the winter, you could walk around in St. Moritz without a jacket, and he promised he would reimburse their travel expenses if his pronouncement disappointed.

When his guests arrived in the middle of December—sweating profusely, it must be said, because the sun was shining magnificently—and Badrutt welcomed them in a short-sleeved shirt, it was obvious that he had won his bet. The British guests stayed on until March. Badrutt was also not shy about extolling the advantages of his hotel’s location in comparison to the other spa hotels. He advertised that his establishment, situated as it was on a south-facing slope in the village, was “much sunnier, always drier and more well-protected than the valley floor, where the bathers lounge around” no matter what the season.

Thenceforth, Badrutt kept the Kulm open year-round, recouping the cost of expanding the hotel. (He also, incidentally, found out that guests consumed more food and drink in the wintertime.) The entries in the guest book contributed to his success: “For everyone for whom mountain air is beneficial, I would like to recommend this high valley, and especially St. Moritz, as a true winter paradise,” wrote Jacob Siegmann, one of the first winter guests of the 1869 to 1870 season, who traveled there from Bayreuth, Germany, with his daughter Rosa.

One of the early drawbacks of St. Moritz was that you could only reach the remote high valley by sleigh. However, in November 1879 the Freie Rhätier newspaper reported on a solution: “The innovative Mr. Badrutt, father, has constructed a new, covered sleigh for traveling over the mountains in winter, and it garners high praise.” Badrutt made his hotel even more attractive by building artificial skating areas and a toboggan run, offering tours of the surrounding mountains, and providing his guests the opportunity to try their hand at curling. Indeed, his hotel was the site of the very first curling bonspiel in mainland Europe. In the winter of 1888, the hotel welcomed 164 guests, 135 of them British tourists, who were cleverly offered delicacies and spirits from their homeland. The guests became like a large, close-knit family by the time the winter was over. The myth of St.

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