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snowmaking, the shif ting of snow, and opti-
ma l slope preparation in mid-December, we are
conf ident that it will be f u lly operationa l f rom
Christmas to early or mid-March,” says Peter.
Loca ls still refer to the 3.5 km slope as the
“Bobbahn”, or bobsleigh run, but few remem-
ber how it ac tua lly got that name. Until 1934 ,
two-man bobsleigh competitions were held on
the slope, with the high light being the World
Championships of 1934. Nationa l and interna-
tiona l sledging races were a lso held there until
1972. Once the competitions stopped, tour-
ists took over the slope. In
Engelberg, sledging as a spor t
dates back to the emergence
of winter tourism in the late
19th centur y. But back then,
no one raced on the “Bobbahn”
– they sledged a long the road
f rom Engelberg to Grafenor t, which is impos-
sible to imagine today. “On ly one car and ten
motorised bicycles were of f icia lly registered
in Obwa lden in 1910. But keeping the moun-
tain road open in winter was widely regarded
as a necessity,” wrote Beat Christen in Engel-
berger Dokumente No. 31, “Wundersch lit ten im
Eiskana l – Die Engelberger Bobgeschichte”. So,
in order to keep v isitors enter tained, the road
was kept open for sledging. The Kur verein a lso
adver tised the road f rom Horbis as a sledg-
ing slope, as well as the sledge and toboggan
run at Kilchbüh l, which the Kur verein built
itself. An additiona l at trac tion was launched
in 1909/1910: “A costly skeleton track was
built f rom Kilchbüh l down to Waisenmat tli,”
writes Beat. The Bobbahn f rom the Gerschnia lp
down to Engelberg was built a few years later,
coinciding with the opening of the Engelberg-
Gerschnia lp f unicu lar railway in Januar y 1913.
The Swiss Championships took place there for
the f irst time in 1921, followed by the two-
man bobsleigh World Championships in 1934.
When you think about bobsleighing in
Engelberg, the name Feierabend is likely to
spring to mind. In 1928, Karl Feierabend built
the legendar y “Feierabend bob”, which shaped
the face of internationa l bobsleigh for the nex t
20 years. While Karl was a master at building
bobsleighs, his son Fritz was a master at riding
them: today he is a legend, one of Switzerland ’s
best-ever bobsleighers. Fritz enjoyed a series of
remarkable successes during his career, includ-
ing si x World Championship titles and three
Olympic silver meda ls, of ten
in a team with other bob-
sleigh pilots f rom Engelberg.
Many Engelberg
carpenters star ted manufac-
turing the Feierabend bob,
a lso known as the Engelberg
sledge, whose seat is around 30 centimetres
higher than that of the bet ter-known Davos
sledge. “Good gliding and hand ling proper-
ties and high durability are the specia l char-
ac teristics of the Engelberg sledge, which is
made of 16 wooden par ts and si x iron par ts,”
writes Beat Christen in “Wundersch lit-
ten im Eiskana l ”. In the mid-1970s, Charles
Christen, tourism direc tor at the time, com-
missioned the last few Engelberg sledges,
some of which are still in ac tion today.
In Engelberg, any mention of
bobsleighing usually evokes
the name of Feierabend.
inside
inside
Ausführliche Informationen rund um die Bob- und
Schlittelgeschichte von Engelberg finden Sie im Engel-
berger Dokument Nr. 31 «Wunderschlitten im Eiskanal
– Die Engelberger Bobgeschichte» von Beat Christen.
Detailed information on the histor y of sledging and
bobsleighing in Engelberg can be found in Engelberger
Dokumente No. 31, “Wundersch lit ten im Eiskana l –
Die Engelberger Bobgeschichte”, by Beat Christen.
Obwohl es schon viel moder-
nere Schlitten, respektive
Rodel gäbe, bevorzugen die
Schweizer immer noch den
guten, alten Holzschlitten.
Although there are more modern
sledges and toboggans on the
market now, the Swiss still prefer
the good old wooden sledge.