Mürren is a little village across the valley from Wengen. It’s quite a bit higher than Wengen, and the story goes that Mürreners look down on Wengen and say ‘only any good for growing flowers down there’. We look up at Mürren and whisper ‘strictly for the goats up there’. But anyway, it’s a nice place to ski so we visit often. Mürren has a British ski club just like the Downhill Only Club in Wengen. On January 30th 1924, British skiers in Mürren formed the Kandahar Ski Club and within 12 months they had challenged the skiers in Wengen to a series of races. On race day, February 6th 1925, the Kandahar’s resplendent “K” badges were countered in the lunch interval by some hastily contrived paper badges bearing the letters DHO, thus preserving for posterity the Wengen skiers preference for ascending the mountains by rail and skiing Downhill Only. The DHO was formed the next day over a celebratory dinner, precisely 53 weeks after the Kandahar Ski Club.
There’s a bit of a climb after you get off the train.
Quiet runs means you can go quite fast.
Incredible views. This is at a restaurant called Sonnenberg where we stop for coffee.
A bit further up the hill we ski some of the higher slopes. More views! That’ll be the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau in the background, all around 4000 metres high. In the foreground you see Val who is 1.64 metres.
In the cable car on the way back to Wengen. Remember I said it was quiet?
Back in Wengen we pop into Rocks bar for a beer, and run into our mate Colin. Colin is a carpenter and he scratches a few extra francs by playing his guitar in the bars in the village. He’s actually very good, but don’t tell him I said so.
Colin has a problem.
Earlier this year he sawed the end off one of his fingers doing some carpentry. Not much of his finger, about three quarters of an inch, but enough to be a major handicap if you’re a guitarist. You see him here reconstructing the missing bit of his finger from bits of rubber and sticky tape, so that he can play in the bar tonight. He has not played in public since the accident. Tune in later to see how he gets on.
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