Pioneering spirit conquered the seven mountains around Gstaad

The people of the Saanenland have always shown initiative and imagination with regard to Swiss Tourism. They were among the first to realise that transporting visitors to the top of the glorious Swiss Mountains in the Bernese Oberland would be good business. Thus, far-sighted hoteliers and inventive technicians joined forces in 1935 to build the first mountain lift in the Saanenland on the Wispile. Today, a total of 62 lifts operate on 13 mountains under joint management.

Winter sports have long been a tradition in the Saanenland. Gstaad’s first real winter season dates back to 1907/08 when ski lessons were offered to visitors for the first time. No pain, no gain: before enjoying an exhilarating downhill run, one first had to climb uphill on foot or with skins on one’s skis. Necessity is the mother of invention, so they say, so it is hardly surprising that ways and means of transporting people uphill were soon being devised.

Wispile – a dream comes true

For the Wispile it was Arnold Annen, a farmer from Lauenen near Gstaad, who came up with the brilliant idea of a „funi“. With his partner, hotelier Oswald von Siebenthal, he installed the first ‚funi’ sleigh on the Wispile in 1934, a kind of forerunner of the cable car. Thus the foundation stone was laid for all the lifts in the Saanenland. The two pioneers formed a partnership in which they had equal shares. The well thought-out construction consisted of two sleighs attached to a cable. As one sleigh moved down the mountain, it pulled the other up driven by a motor. From zero to one hundred: with a respectable capacity of 100 persons per hour, the first «mountain lift» began operating. It was not long, however, before the queues grew long enough to fill three sleighs. Everyone wanted to stand on the summit of the Wispile. In 1944 the ‚funi’ was converted into a ski lift following the same route.

Hornberg – with 1 HP

A modest 70 centimes sufficed to reach this winter sports paradise. Those were the days! One made one’s way up the mountain in a horse-drawn sleigh. The revolution came in 1934. For the first time skiers were taken up to the Hornberg in a vehicle with caterpillar tracks. However, maintenance costs were too high compared to the small number of passengers this vehicle could carry. As a result, the decision was taken to build a ‚funi’ on the Hornberg. 50 persons at a time (360 per hour) gained access to this fabulous ski region. The chairlift which now carries approx. 1200 winter sports fanatics per hour to their destination was not built until 1986.

First cable car in the Saanenland

On the initiative of Marcel Reuteler, owner of the Park Hotel at the time, and bank manager Arnold Mösching a funi was built on the Eggli in January 1938. After careful planning the company, Eggli Funi AG, was founded in December 1937. Far-sighted hoteliers contributed the 100,000 Swiss francs needed to build the new cable car. Built by Von Roll Ironworks in Berne it began operating in January 1938.

The first cable car in the Saanenland followed in 1954. This new lift cost 640,000 Swiss francs at the time. It took 300 persons per hour up to the summit. Two years later Marcel Reuteler purchased the old St. Stephan vicarage for 55,000 Swiss francs and had it rebuilt on the Eggli for use as a restaurant.

Wasserngrat – the third member of the trio

The Wasserngrat chairlift was the first lift in the region to operate in summer as well. At the general constituent assembly of the company on August 10, 1945 Gstaad set a trend. Gstaad believed in the region’s future as a tourist destination and gave the green light for Switzerland’s first chairlift. Instead of the iron masts which had originally been planned, wooden masts had to be used as not enough iron was available so soon after the war. In April 1946 the first visitors rode up the Wasserngrat to enjoy a glass of wine in the sun on the terrace of the mountain restaurant. Gradually the wooden masts were replaced by iron masts. The cost of building the chairlift and the mountain restaurant came to 821,000 Swiss francs. When the chairlift came close to bankruptcy in 1994 even film star Roger Moore dug into his pocket. The world-famous Eagle Ski Club still has a clubhouse on the Wasserngrat.

Boom years and dark shadows

In the 1970s and 1980s the cable cars and ski lifts in the region flourished. Skiing enjoyed increasing popularity. During these boom years 20 lifts were running from Zweisimmen (with the Rinderberg as the gateway) via Saanenmöser and Schönried to Gstaad. In the early 1960s the spectacular cable car to the Glacier 3000 (Glacier les Diablerets) began operating. Totally renovated in 2001, this new and ultra-modern lift can carry more than 1250 passengers per hour to this imposing glacier world and the permanent snows of the ski region above the Col du Pillon (can be reached from Gstaad via Gsteig in 15 minutes with public transport). The futuristic design of the valley and mountain stations bears the signature of Swiss star architect Mario Botta. It is, however, proving difficult to finance the running costs of the Glacier 3000 cable car. Two financial restructuring programmes have already been implemented to save the company. In the 1990s other mountain lifts in the Saanenland also found themselves in financial difficulties – resulting from increasing competition and winters without snow at lower altitudes. The future called for bold action.

Merger with pioneer character

The people of the Saanenland took another pioneering step into the future with the successful merger of 12 mountain lift operating companies in and around Gstaad. Effective retroactively from May 1, 2003 the Bergbahnen Saanenland-Simmental AG, the Eggli Gondelbahn AG, the Luftseilbahn Gstaad-Höhi Wispile AG, the Rellerli Luftseilbahn Schönried AG and the Skilifte undSesselbahn Schönried-Horneggli AG merged to form a single entity at the end of March 2004. The chairlift Chalberhöni Pra Cluen AG, Saanen, the Téléphérique Rougemont Videmanette S.A. and the ski lift Hühnerspiel GmbH, Saanen followed suit on May 24 (with retroactive effect from November/December 03). The newly created company, Bergbahnen Destination Gstaad AG (BDG) is unique in Switzerland, as it is the only mountain lift company so far that is firmly established in more than one region. It crosses a language barrier, operates in two cantons and covers the territory of seven communes. Together with the remaining companies Glacier 3000, Wasserngrat and Télé Château d’Oex the company now runs 62 lift systems under the new label GSTAAD MOUNTAIN RIDES. Marketing activities, and this is also a first, are now the responsibility of the regional tourist board, Gstaad Saanenland Tourism. This allows the destination to present a uniform corporate image.

Considerable Investments planned

GSTAAD MOUNTAIN RIDES intends to make massive investments in forthcoming years. Expenditure totalling 70 million francs is to be spent on snow-making equipment and on making the ski areas more attractive. On the Rinderberg in Zweisimmen new and powerful snow-making equipment has already been installed for the winter season 2004/05. The capacity of existing snow-making systems on the Saanen side of the Eggli, on Horneggli, Hornberg and Saanersloch in Saanenmöser as well as on Pra Cluen between Eggli and Videmanette has been vastly improved. Over the next few years the network of runs that can be covered with man-made snow will be extended. Planning work on the new lifts will begin in 2005. By 2010 a total of seven new lifts will be built. Some will replace old installations, some will make new regions accessible.

Source: www.gstaad.ch