Where it all began ...
Ihre einmalige Geschichte und die idealen Bedingungen für Olympioniken, Weltmeister und Aktivurlauber sorgen dafür, dass die Corviglia heute zu den beliebtesten alpinen Ferien- und Wettkampfdestinationen gehört.
If St. Moritz is considered the ‘cradle of winter tourism’, the Corviglia should logically be considered its ‘nursery’, as skiers from all over the world have been frolicking on its slopes for around 150 years. The first people to whizz through the snow here on two wooden boards were tourists from the United Kingdom as well as the locals, who really stirred up the Engadin with their proverbial sporting spirit.
Bet that ...?
Before the first British ski club in Switzerland was founded here in 1901/02 or the first bobsleigh run was initiated in 1903/04, St. Moritz was already considered a prestigious summer destination. This was not least thanks to the Corviglia as an attractive local mountain, which was great for hiking. However, this seasonal development of his beautiful home region was not enough for the now legendary hotel pioneer Johannes Badrutt: in 1864, he asked a group of English guests who wanted to escape the supposedly inhospitable winter at the end of their summer holiday in St. Moritz and return to their native London why they were leaving again. Wouldn't they know that the Engadin sun shone so brightly, even in snow and ice, that you could even sit on the terrace in shirtsleeves? And then the shrewd Badrutt took the English by the honour: he made a bet with them! Bet that they would enjoy the St. Moritz winter so much that they wouldn't want to leave? If they didn't like it, he would reimburse their entire travelling expenses to and from London. Hand on heart and may God be his witness! The Englishmen complied and travelled back as agreed for Christmas 1864. Have you already guessed? That's right: Badrutt won his bet hands down. The enthusiastic visitors from the north stayed for more than 4 months and only left again after Easter 1865, all sunburnt.
Clear the slopes!
What followed this legendary bet was the meteoric rise of a winter destination - and the Corviglia as one of the most prominent sports mountains in the world: as the venue for the 1948 Winter Olympics and (so far) five Ski World Championships, it now inspires thousands of athletes from numerous nations every year.
The upsurge in tourism has been accompanied by a tremendous amount of innovation. Hardly a year went by without new technical or sporting firsts being celebrated in St. Moritz, on the Corviglia and around the world: For example, ice skaters were the first to establish their first club in Switzerland here in 1868, the first curling club followed in 1880, and the world-famous Cresta Run was built in 1884/85.
The impressive history of the Corviglia ski area began in 1913 with the construction of the Chantarella cable car, which - originally built as a feeder from St. Moritz to a high-altitude health resort - was soon used mainly by sledgers and skiers to bypass the arduous uphill walk. When St. Moritz hosted the Winter Olympics for the first time in 1928 (at that time without the Corviglia as a competition venue), ski tourism experienced a huge boom and the municipal decision was unanimous: Corviglia must be better developed so that sporting feats could also be achieved there. The Corviglia cable car, the first Mountain railways developed purely for skiing, became the pioneer for a large number of ski lifts, aerial cableways and drag lifts, which still transport winter sports fans safely to lofty heights today.
Weather forecast on competition day: a shower of medals on the Corviglia
The time had come in 1934: the Ski World Championships were held on the Corviglia for the first time and the conditions proved to be so ideal that the organisers chose St. Moritz as the venue in 1948, 1974, 2003 and 2017.
The Winter Olympics also returned in 1948, and this time Corviglia shone as the venue for the international competitions, in which almost 700 top athletes from 28 nations took part. The dramatic highlight: the downhill victory of the ‘Swiss Amazon’ Hedy Schlunegger, who, despite a fall, ‘came down the slopes in great speed, got through all the shots brilliantly and finished in the absolute best time of 2:28’ (NZZ of 3 February 1948).
Incidentally, it was not unusual for one or two skiers to end up with their noses in the snow back then, as the Corviglia-Chantarella downhill piste was considered to be extremely challenging. Just try your skills yourself and make your turns on the black-marked ‘Olympia downhill run’!