Hotels and ski schools in Wengen worried about this winter

A snowHead

I was reading the enthusiastic ski show report this morning, and thought your readers might be interested in a piece I posted to my own blog a few weeks about how worried hotels and ski schools are in Wengen. After a poor summer season, the combination of the strength of the Swiss franc and the enduring recession, might create some unexpected bargain-hunting opportunities for your members:

http://www.brianbollen.com/bbb_brian_bollens_blog/2011/10/swiss-invisible-exporters-bricking-it.html

A snowHead

Brian Bollen, with regard to the number of Asian tourists going up to Jungfraujoch I can tell you exactly why that occurs, In 1926 Crown Prince Chichibu the brother of Emperor Hirohito climbed in the area Summitting the Wetterhorn he also returned with his wife the following year, later in 1953 his nephew, now the Emperor Akihito, also visited Grindelwald, I was told by a Japanese university student I met on the Glacier at Jungfraujoch, that one of these (I forget who) had written an account of these trips in a diary which was later published, the Japanese still revere their royal family (even if they are no longer worshipped as gods) and apparently within this diary the Jungfrau was described in wonderful terms and may also have been called a holy place much like Mt Fuji, (as those who have visited the area will probably agree there is something special about that particular group of peaks with the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau, standing in the sun), anyway as a result it seems almost every Japanese who gets to travel to Europe makes an effort to get up the Jungfrau. Their typical tours come up to Lauterbrunnen in their coaches where they join the Railway, at Kl Scheidegg they pose for group pictures with the Jungfrau in the background before they get the train up to the top, on the way down they go via Grindelwald where they pic up their group pics and may have a meal before joining their coaches and continuing their holiday.

Hoteliers have been struggling on and off in Wengen since the 1970's perhaps earlier, at least 5 former hotels are now apartments, The Shweizerhof, Shweizerheim, Eden, Bristol and Eiger, however there has also been a drop in the number of rented apartments with a lot having been bought as private holiday homes.

The Swiss in general seem to have actually been relatively well protected from the financial storm occurring in the rest of Europe, however this has resulted in their currency significantly gaining in value verses the pound, euro and dollar, the unfortunate result is that Swiss tourism will inevitably suffer Sad

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Brian Bollen, not interested, sadly, in view of the ChF strength. Hotels are but part of the cost, drinks meals train and lift pass costs are all adding up the wrong way.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Thanks for the feedback, especially about the Japanese. That explains a lot. I first visited Wengen in the summer of 1974, when I worked for the summer as a hall porter at the Palace Hotel (now Club Med) so I know all about the long-term decline of the hotels. My wife and I recently removed our own apartment from the rental market. The modest income we were receiving wasn't really worth the hassle.

I've written other stories about the Swiss franc:
http://www.brianbollen.com/bbb_brian_bollens_blog/2011/06/swiss-franc-too-strong-says-hauswart.html

http://www.brianbollen.com/bbb_brian_bollens_blog/2011/10/swiss-prices-coming-down-no-avalanche-but-welcome-nevertheless.html

http://www.brianbollen.com/bbb_brian_bollens_blog/2011/08/a-thought-on-combatting-the-strength-of-the-swiss-franc.html

http://www.brianbollen.com/bbb_brian_bollens_blog/2011/07/dollar-undervalued-swissie-costs-too-much-dighton.html

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Details of this year's Inferno Races can be found at: http://www.brianbollen.com/bbb_brian_bollens_blog/2011/11/inferno-ahoy.html

You'll need to Register first of course.

And a tale inspired by a chance meeting at last year's Inferno races can be found at:

http://www.brianbollen.com/bbb_brian_bollens_blog/2011/05/whatever-happened-to-whatever-happened-to-gordon-lindsay-one-time-head-of-global-custody-at-rbs-trust-and-then-at-bank.html

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I've put together a short list of links to the main webcams that can help you quickly check out the weather there and in the surrounding area, today, tomorrow and even into the end of next week. The links in turn link to other useful sites for accommodation and related matters.

The area is absolutely devoid of snow, and none is forecast even on the nine-day trend that takes us up to November 20.

http://www.brianbollen.com/bbb_brian_bollens_blog/2011/11/wengen-webcams.html

After all it is free

guess it is one way of bigging up your blog rolling eyes

You are absolutely right with your observation, yes, CEM, but if I'm to make it a financial success I need to attract a certain quality of audience as well as quantity, so there is no guarantee my current experiment with this forum will continue.

In the meantime, I'm sharing what I feel is relevant information and opinion, which I would have thought is a useful contribution to a very diverse set of bulletin boards, and I'd argue that more people will find it useful than make catty remarks.

Incidentally, I prefer to post under my real name than hide my identity. If you'd like to address me directly, my email address is brianbollen@mac.com.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Brian Bollen, Are you sure you want the world to know your e-mail address.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Brian Bollen, not a catty remark, simply an observation that it seems a bit strange to join in a web forum and immediately post about your own blog, interesting as it may be, most people IMO join in a forum add a bit of banter before doing this

i have no need to address you directly but i am sure the spammers searching the internet right now will love to know your e mail address... as riverman, said i think removing it may be prudent

snow reports

I like Wengen. Went there for the 4th time last year.

I don't like people who walk into a room for the first time and immediately start promoting themselves rather than listening... And if you are going to make some dosh... I hope you will cut admin in on some of it....

According to your previous self-promoting posts you don't even ski?

I started posting on this board two or three years back, so the comment about walking into a room for the first is factually inaccurate. I have hopes of achieving some sponsorship or patronage for my blog from international financial services institutions, but to be quite frank there couldn't be a worse time to be looking for money from that industry.

Thanks for the concern about my e-privacy, but my email address is by definition contained in every single message I send out, so I don't lose much sleep over including it in posts to bulletin boards. As a matter of policy, I ALWAYS use my real name and can't understand why others don't.

So there's no need to worry. I'm not sitting here drowning in gold while admin starves. In fact, this site is probably in much the same situation as I'm in. Though I do notice that it carries ads, which I don't.

I am experimenting in ways to drive up my readership, which is why I posted my messages yesterday. I found out by accident last week (I'm doing this single-handedly, as tech-dyslexic, and learning as I go by trial and error) that if you post something vaguely interesting to a particular board, the users of that board will immediately, likely, click on the link, and the Statcounter captures the activity. It's fascinating really.

I don't ski, no. I have tried it, but it's not for me. I'm a freelance journalist, and cannot afford the risk of injury. If I don't work, I don't earn.

I have written about skiing for a reasonably well known pink broadsheet paper, have press accreditation for the Lauberhorn races and the Inferno races, and have interviewed a few skiers and coaches on a one to one basis, and attended many a post-race press conference (I would post the connecting entries, but that would obviously upset people). So I DO have an interest in it as a sport.

Oddly enough, one thing I've found down the years is that very few people who bang on about skiing follow the sport. The moment I start talking about what Bode Miller says about being in mental and physical agony every time he puts on his ski boots, their eyes start to glaze over.

Then again, maybe I'm just boring. Always a possibility...

Oh, and I am genuinely passionate about Wengen and the surrounding area, and do my bit to spread the news. And I'm planning to enter the Jungfrau Marathon in September. Again, I'd post a link, but wouldn't want to upset anyone.

You know it makes sense.

Brian Bollen, welcome to grumpyoldgitHeads. Laughing

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Seriously, though. Hands up. Should I continue trying to contribute by drawing attention to skiing/Wengen/Bernese Oberland stuff on my blog? Or not? I also wrote a piece for the Financial Times about how buying a property in Switzerland is easier than you might think, and it's on the blog in its full original form.

A snowHead

A snowHead

Isn't everyone's participation in most activities ultimately out of self-interest?

Bo reply to your questions: I probably drive around 1,500 miles a year these days, avoiding motorways and rush hours, and long journies, for which I use public transport wherever possible, transferring risk.

Living in Milton Keynes for the past 26 years, I can go for miles on dedicated foot and cycle paths without crossing a road. I was nearly killed when crossing the road in an unfamiliar part of North Battersea in London seven or eight years ago, and am extremely careful when I have to cross a 'proper' road.

I've given up any DIY task that involves climbing ladders, or tackling anything more challenging than putting up a shelf. I prefer GSE (get someone else).

I've become extremely risk-averse, having realised with a jolt when a long-distance running partner passed the age of 50, that we are both of us nearer the exit than the entrance. I would like to have quality of life as well as quantity.

Probably the final nail in my 'ambition to ski' coffin was the death of Natasha Richardson, who, you might recall, died after falling from a standing position on nursery slopes in full gear. My point is that the potential for serious injury in skiing is (for me) too far out of proportion to the enjoyment. I once went to a gathering of the Downhill Only Club in Wengen. Virtually every person to whom I was introduced had had one or more serious injuries, and was dragging their body painfully around the room. It's just not for me.

I do greatly enjoy watching it, incidentally, and envy the fluidity and grace of good skiers. I was supposed to go on a school skiing trip to Glenshee in March 1972 at the age of 15, but was instead hospitalised in Glasgow Royal Infirmary for a fortnight, seriously ill. Maybe if I HAD been able to make that trip, you'd be looking forward to reading my ski-related banter, FatBob, rather than ignoring me. Schoene Tag.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Brian Bollen, You made me laugh with your desription of the Downhill Only Club dragging their bodies around due to serious injuries when from my experience it was due to drink!!!!

You'll need to Register first of course.

I see that I have missed the c out of description again due to the drink

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Jeees - you have to laugh

"Patronage and sponsorship opportunities are now available for Brian Bollen's Blog for 2012 and beyond. From entry-level to deluxe, bespoke packages can be structured to suit every budget"

Crusty old journo who was once probably on staff of a well respected title now finds himself on the freelance heap - and low and behold has found out about blogging Smile

Well a tip for you matey boy - have you tried Google Ads ?

And to get back on topic - Swedish ski guide mate of mine said that for the Swedes Switzerland is a No No this year the way the Crown has gone against the Franc.

My dear old parents (both in their late 80's) went on a coach trip this Summer and the price of a coffee in bar was enough nearly to give the old man a heart attack - luckily I did tell him in advance to put a few bottles in his suitcase Smile

And dear Wengen, I was a member of the Dickheads only club for a few years - often getting quite twatted in the clubhouse by the ice skating ring - in the days when I did a few Ali Ross courses - whoooaaaa going back in time or what!

After all it is free

Oh dear, where do I start? With an English lesson.

The plural of nouns ending in -ey: -ies is the correct form (eys has become standard practice but that doesn't make it correct. Consider: mystery/mysteries, penny/pennies, trolley/trollies. The spelling 'journies' is correct.

I haven't ended up on the 'freelance heap'. I made a conscious decision to go freelance late in 1992, when the two-hour each way commute from my home in Milton Keynes to the FT offices at One Southwark Bridge became too gruelling.

I was a full-time staff journalist on the Financial Times Group payroll and still write for it fairly regularly. Easy to check: google both its name and my name. Touch wood, with the exception of post-9/11 2002-03, I've made a relatively decent living ever since.

I wouldn't use the word 'crusty' to describe myself, but I suppose to anyone aged over 25 I'm an ancient relic. And everyone is entitled to their opinion, and to their right to express that opinion.

You're right in that I've relatively recently found out about blogging. It's an excellent way for me to keep in touch with the many different specialist markets, develop existing relationships with the people who matter in the areas I cover and create new ones.

Other than Google search, I find the various Google services pretty ugly and unwieldy, so don't tend to use them.

On the DHO, it seemed that virtually everyone I spoke to had a metal plate or two in them. The bar had only just opened at 6pm so I'm being charitable and saying it was too early to be drunk, although from what I have seen of some snowsport enthusiasts it's not the apres-ski that attracts them but the pendant-ski. I wouldn't use the word 'Dickheads' myself, as I know at least one member who certainly isn't, but wouldn't disagree with its general application.

I couldn't help noticing that, for instance, on the Saturday night of the 2011 Lauberhorn Downhill, the biggest night in the skiing year in Wengen, the DHO building was the only one that was shut.

And if anyone's interested, I've probably had over 200 hits emanating directly from here over the past 24 hours. That's a drop in the ocean, but a fair bit more than I normally see at the weekend, when my target market is mostly at home. It has proved to be an interesting experiment.

If anyone has questions to ask about Wengen and/or the surrounding area, I'd be delighted to help if I can. Don't hesitate to ask.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Brian Bollen, personally I don't know what you are worried about, I've been visiting Wengen since (literally) before I was born over 40 years ago, I'm over weight, unfit and defiantly not athletic, yet I still love skiing, I'd guess I have well over a hundred weeks skiing holidays in total and in that time so far the worst injury I have managed whilst skiing is a sprained ankle (twice), ski racing is dangerous I'll admit but cruising the piste is probably no more dangerous than walking or cycling, in fact I'd say cycling is far more dangerous given the way some motorists seem to ignore cyclists.

Oh and I too am self employed so in theory should avoid these "Dangerous" activities, but hey, you can fall over at home bang your head and be dead tomorrow so why worry. As for a lot of so called skiing injuries, many seem to occur off skis, saw a nasty one where a woman slipped on some ice and ended up with a pair of broken hips (found out later), she was just walking down the street in Grindelwald.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Oh my giddy aunt!

By the way, Brian Bollen, surely you are not seriously suggesting that the plural of the noun 'journey' is 'journies'?
The new Fowler (Burchfield) dismisses this in three short words:

snow reports

Hmm. A non-skiing blogger on snowHeads. The opening post was obviously self-promotion, but commercial benefit was not obvious (yup, there are times that I can do naive) and I did think that the content was of interest to the skiing community, particularly those who are interested in skiing in Switzerland. Numerous further links to his blog seem to me not only tedious, but rather an abuse of sH hospitality. I think it should stop.

You know it makes sense.

achilles,

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

rob@rar, why not - it's been quite a while since we did that

A snowHead

achilles, excellent!

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Brian Bollen,

So you didn't just enter the room? Well indeed you didn't. Your first three posts were a promotion of your chalet five years ago... You then managed 3 other posts in the meantime before your latest tasty spamfest

You'll need to Register first of course.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Dr No, As regards Mr Bollen's articles in the FT, hopefully the sub-editors have a better grasp of English. wink

After all it is free

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Richard_Sideways, genius!

Help!!

Hotels and ski schools in Wengen worried about this winter

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste