Wengen

In February of 2001 Cindy and I visited Wengen, Switzerland, a small car-free mountain village deep in the Berner Oberland.  This week-long trip was organized by Earl Holliday, founder of the Wintergreen Alpine Ski Club. This was our second trip to Wengen; we had visited there once before with the Ski Club in 1994.

Our group (around 40 people) flew into Zurich and then boarded a charter bus for the 2 hour ride to Lauterbrunnen, which is not too far from the popular resort town of Interlaken.  In Lauterbrunnen we transferred a narrow gauge cog railway, for the short but steep climb to the village of Wengen.  Wengen is perched high on the side of a mountain overlooking the picturesque Lauterbrunnen Valley.  We stayed in the Silberhorn, a very nice older hotel located in the heart of Wengen. Our weather for the week ranged from heavy wet snow to spring-like warmth and sunshine, both typical for our European skiing trips as they tended to take place later in the season and at relatively low altitude.

The railway climbs above Wengen through Allmend and Wengernalp to Kleine Scheidegg, a central point for accessing a wide variety of the area’s ski slopes. The Kleine Scheidegg rail station sits in the pass between the Lauberhorn and the spectacular Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau mountains. The Eiger, you may recall, plays a major in Clint Eastwood’s “The Eiger Sanction”.

The Kleine Scheidegg rail station is home to the infamous Tipi Bar, which looks exactly like its namesake but on a much larger scale. It was perfect for a much-needed mid-morning break, an al fresco lunch, or even a late afternoon refreshment before boarding the train for the short ride down to our hotel in Wengen.

Kleine Scheidegg is also the starting point for the Jungfraubahn, a cog railway that runs 9 kilometers, mostly via tunnel, to the Jungfraujoch. The Jungfraujoch, at just over 11,000 feet above sea level, is the highest railway station in Europe. It was always an interesting on the train above Wengen to see the street-shoed daytrippers headed to the various tourist attractions at the Jungfraujoch mixed in with the hardcore skiers slathered in Piz Buin sunscreen.

One of our most memorable ski adventures ever involved skiing the Lauberhorn, a network of trails that is the home for the Lauberhornrennen, the World Cup downhill race.  Midway down this race course is an evil feature known as “The Trap” where the course makes a  blind ‘S’ turn between a rock wall and a steep drop-off.  The Trap sent seven skiers to the hospital during one particularly bad race.  We, of course, had to ski the course and experience The Trap, albeit in better weather and at a much slower speed than the unlucky racers.

Another of our favorite ski adventures in the area was to take the cable car from Wengen up to Männlichen, which sits high on a mountain ridge on the west side of the Lauterbrunnen valley. Männlichen is the access point for some very nice slopes and trails down into the next valley which is home to the popular resort town of Grindelwald. We skied down into Grindelwald during each of our Wintergreen trips to Wengen and then returned there in 2008 for an extended late summer exploration – you can see our blog for that trip here.

In addition to skiing the Kleine Scheidegg and Männlichen we also rode the train to Murren.  Murren was the access point to the Schilthorn, which was the site of the marginally-famous skiing scene (complete with a revolving restaurant) from the James Bond film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. The ski trails down from the Schilthorn are heinous to say the least and death-defying under certain conditions. If you opted to take the cable car up to the top but came to your senses after witnessing the trails from overhead they offered what was called the ‘chicken fare’ for the safe (and sane) ride back to the base.

Last but not least there was a day trip that a group of us made sans skis to Interlaken. This trip was on a particularly warm day when the snow promised to be just too heavy or thin (depending on the elevation). Interlaken, which literally means “between the lakes” is a very quaint and picturesque town that Cindy and I would visit for a 17 day early summer adventure in 2013 – our blog for that trip is available here.

Meal-wise our visit to Wengen followed the usual pattern for our Wintergreen Ski Club trips – a nice breakfast buffet (charcuterie, muesli, fruit, etc), lunch on the slopes, and a group dinner in either the hotel’s dining room or a local restaurant. Each afternoon we would have an apres ski party hosted by a different group of couples who would get things started with an assortment of beer, wine, and appetizers. These parties were typically held in either somebody’s room or a conference room (if the hotel had one available).