Snow, Sun and Stars

In winter 1864/65, the global history of winter tourism began in the mountains of Graubünden. It was the promise of healthy mountain air that first brought German and English visitors to the still largely undiscovered mountains surrounding St. Moritz and Davos. These adventurous early winter guests and the entrepreneurial spirit of the locals set a trend in motion that was soon taken up by numerous locations in Switzerland and its neighbouring countries. Illustrious guests made up new sports, and with the advent of skiing, winter sports turned into a popular movement. This book tells the full story of this development for the very first time, in a coherent and richly illustrated layout. The story of winter tourism is also a story of names, such as Johannes Badrutt, who laid the foundations of the winter tourism industry with his Hotel Kulm in St. Moritz; Henry Lunn who founded the winter package holiday, introducing the English to skiing; Charlie Chaplin, who came to the Swiss mountains for a fortnight and ended up staying for two and a half months; and Marie-Theres Nadig, Adolf Ogi and Bernhard Russi, who all helped to turn Switzerland into a powerful skiing nation. The book includes articles by Ursula Bauer, Samuel Burgener, Peter Jegen, Adi Kälin, Max Keller, Christof Kübler, Roland Küng and Sepp Renggli.

Auteur
Michael Lütscher was born in 1962. He is a freelance journalist and the author of many books including «Eine Stadt, ein Verein, eine Geschichte. Der FC Zürich von 1896 bis heute» (2010). He lives in Zurich and loves the winter.