history
1891. The first skier in the
Jungfrau region, Gerald Fox
(on the right) from Somerset,
photographed in Grindelwald.
Right: 1920. SF Fisken, CJ
White, GC Dobbs, and A
Walser in Grindelwald
1921. The British National
Championships, won by Leonard
Dobbs. Note that at least 2
competitors are using single
Nordic style ski poles.
1924. Vivien Caulfeild opens the
first ski school in Switzerland. He
became a DHO founder member
DHOwengen
Alpine skiing, our small part in its creation
The British played a significant part in the development of sport in the Alps.
British aristocrats, encouraged by the output of the poets and painters of the romantic era
(Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, Ruskin, Turner etc) and the shortly to be available rail travel,
undertook a “Grand Tour” to Rome via Switzerland. Some walked over the mountain
passes and even climbed the mountains. By 1850 about 30 “Great Peaks” in Switzerland
had been climbed, mostly by the Swiss. In the following ”Golden Age” of mountaineering,
between 1854 and 1865, 39 of the next 40 great peaks were conquered by the British,
culminating in the ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865.
1865. Edward
Whymper, the first
person to climb the
Matterhorn.
This was summertime only, mountain hotels closed in winter. In 1860, the British
asked the Baer Hotel in Grindelwald to open at Christmas, the first mountain hotel
in Switzerland to do so. Guests skated, tobogganed, walked and breathed the clean
mountain air. By 1880 visitors expected toboggans, bobsleighs and skating rinks with
orchestras. Skating was the most important activity.
In 1888, Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer crossed Greenland on skis. His book
“Paa Ski over Gronland” was translated into English in 1891. It was the spark that
ignited the skiing revolution. Somerset cousins Gerald and Thomas Fox learned to ski
in Norway, and in January 1891, came to the Baer Hotel. This was not Alpine skiing,
Gerald Fox walked on the flat areas using a single pole to propel himself, stop and
steer. By 1900 local Swiss, too, were taking up this “hiking on
skis”. In 1905, Henry Lunn’s Public School Alpine Sports Club
was bringing British clients to Crans Montana, Grindelwald,
Murren and Wengen etc. Mostly they skated. To get to Wengen and
Murren there was no winter uphill transport, visitors had to walk, ride
or be towed on sledge. Fritz Borter of the Wengen Palace Hotel and Henry
Lunn of the Murren Palace Hotel approached the railway and negotiated
the opening of winter rail services from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen (1910)
and Murren (1911). In Crans in 1912 the first mostly downhill race was
held for PSASC visitors. By 1913 the Allmendhubel was completed and
open in Murren and the Wengen line was open to Wasser Station. By
1914, the service from Wengen extended to Kleine Scheidegg.
During World War One, visitors to Switzerland were very few. In 1920, winter sports began again
and in 1921 the very first British National Ski championship was held on the Lauberhorn. There was
a jumping and a style competition and a downhill race. It was 9 years before another nation held a
similar championship. In January 1924, Arnold
18th February 1925.
The second club run,
Lunn organised a competition between Swiss
the Tschuggen Glade to
and British undergraduate skiers, from the
Grund. Left to right, S F
Fisken, Fritz Borter, G R
universities of Bern and Oxford. This was
Rowbotham , CJ Odling.
the first “International” race and it took place
down the Barhag towards Grindelwald from
Scheidegg. That same month, Arnold Lunn
formed the Kandahar Ski Club in Murren. In
November, the Swiss undergraduates formed
the SAS (Schweizerischer Akademischer Skiclub). These were
10th February 1925.
the first two Alpine Racing Clubs in the world. And buoyed by the
Lunch stop on the
success of his 1911 book “How to Ski”, Vivian Caulfeild opened a ski Lauberhorn of the very
first DHO club run. Left
school in Wengen, the first in Switzerland.
to right, SF Fisken,
CJ Odling, Mrs Barry
Caulfeild, Barry Caulfeild.
1926. Wengen Golden Ski race.
“Uncle” Rowarth about to cross
the railway line being chased by
Ken Foster in bobble hat.
In the 20s, the world’s best uphill transport was between Wengen and
Kleine Scheidegg. One of the Wengen skiers, Major Sidney Fisken
used to describe Wengen skiing as “Railway Mountaineering” and “Skiing Downhill
Only”. In 1925 the Kandahar challenged the Wengen skiers to a series of races which
took place down the “Standard” on 6th February 1925. First a slalom, then a downhill
race in the afternoon. During lunch, Ken Foster borrowed Fisken’s phrase and
produced paper badges with DHO thereon to counteract the rather flashy K badges
sported by the Kandahar. Both races were lost by the Wengen skiers.
Next evening over dinner at the Palace Hotel, it was decided to form a club called
the DHO, with the intention of defeating the Kandahar in the Bernese Oberland
Shield. The DHO thus became the 3rd Alpine racing ski club. There were 15
founder members. On Tuesday 10th Feb they held the first club run, another
on 18th Feb and the last that season on 25th Feb.
21st February
1926. The first
race between
the Wengen Ski
Club and the DHO.
Won convincingly
by the SCW. SCW
team Christian Rubi,
Willi Brunner, Walter
Gertsch, Alfred Gertsch,
Ernst Gertsch.
DHO Team,
Barry Caulfeild,
CJ White, TR
Fox, SF Fisken,
C Smith, M
B-Hamilton.
8th February
1927. The first
DHO Dinner. 16
attended, held at
the Palace Hotel,
Wengen.
February 1928.
Douglas McMillan
at the start of the
Polytechnic Cup,
in which he led
before falling and
finally finishing
5th.
1890. Summer
Tourists on the
Grindelwald
glacier.
1888. Fridtjof Nansen,
whose book
inspired others
to adopt skiing.
One of the 5 badges created
by Ken Foster on 6th February
1925 in the lunch interval.
25th February 1925.
The 3rd and final
club run for 1925,
From Mannlichen to
Grund. Left to right,
NB Grounds, Fritz
Borter, CJ White,
A Flothon, Othmar
Gertner (playing
accordion), SF
Fisken.
10th January 1926. British versus Swiss universities
slalom races at Murren. The DHO provides the music
near Almendhubel, during a pause in the slalom, left
to right, EA Davis, Othmar Gertner (with squeeze box),
Donald Dalrymple, S F Fisken.
Next season more members joined and runs and races continued. Again
the Kandahar won the Bernese Oberland Shield, but less
convincingly this time. Richard and David Waghorn joined the
DHO, and the local Swiss club, (Wengen Ski Club) began to
show an interest in racing. RAF officer Dick Waghorn told his
fellow officers back home of the fun of skiing. One such was
Douglas McMillan, who came to Wengen in 1927, the year the
DHO won the Shield for the first time. In 1928, McMillan took part in
the Polytechnic Cup, a novices race. After returning home, he collided
with another aircraft in June and was killed. In his memory, his father
12th February 1926. The Wengen
Team Race Cup between DHO and
presented a cup to be raced annually. This is the last race in the Alps
Kandahar, hoping for the fog to
clear. Left to right, Barry Caulfeild
where all competitors start simultaneously.
(DHO), Dick Waghorn (DHO), Ken
In 1928, Donald Dalrymple, the livewire DHO club secretary, was
killed in an avalanche on the Eggishorn. The club, too, nearly died,
but was revived at the last minute by Dick Waghorn. He was selected
12th February 1926. Dick Wagfor the British ski team in 1931, but later that year,
horn awaits the fog clearance at
Wasser Station.
Dick died as a result of injuries after an airframe
failure and yet again the DHO went into a significant
decline. Meanwhile, the Wengen Ski Club had learned much from the
DHO about alpine racing and Ernst Gertsch founded the Lauberhorn
race in 1930. Within a few years the WSC would come to dominate
international Alpine ski racing. And for the first time Downhill and Slalom
were run at the winter Olympics of 1936.
Foster (DHO), G Samuelson (K), A
H D’Egville (K), A P Allinson (K).
Won by the DHO, the first time the
Kandahar were beaten by another
British club.
Meanwhile, Ken Foster took the DHO by the scruff of its neck and
breathed life back into the club.
Above right: 1931. Dick
Waghorn competing in the
British championships held in
Wengen.
1937. Another of the DHO races
on the Wengen Standard piste.
In September 1939, World War II started and all skiing ceased for the DHO for some 6 years,
although our friends of the Wengen Ski Club, such as Heinz von Allmen, Karl Molitor and
Heidi Schlunnegger continued to dominate such skiing as occurred.
www.downhillonly.com