ADELBODEN

'Adelboden' is a municipality in the district of Frutigen in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland.

Contents

Geography

History

Main sights and cultural events

Languages

Government

Economics

Tourism and sport

Traffic

Schools

See also

External links

Geography

Adelboden lies in the west of the Bernese Oberland, at the end of the valley of the Engstligen river, which flows in Frutigen into the Kander river.
Adelboden is a traditional Swiss mountain village on a terrace looking south to the Engstligen waterfalls. Also part of the village are the inhabited valleys of Gilbach, Stigelschwand, Boden, Hirzboden, and Ausserschwand. Church and main street are on 1350 m, the highest point of the area is the Grossstrubel with 3,242 m, the lowest point is on 1,045 m in the Engstligen valley.

The vegetation is alpine and sub-alpine, partially wooded, the slopes, the plateaus, and terraces usually alp meadows.
The most salient mountains are Lohner (3,048 m), Steghorn (3,146 m), Wildstrubel (3,243 m), Fitzer (2,458 m), Tschenten (2,025 m) (mountain railway) and Gsür (2,708 m).

History

The alps Engstligenalp and Silleren belonging to Adelboden are mentioned for the first time in the 13th century. The inhabitants of Engstligental are called forest people. In the 15th century Adelboden got its own church and there were over 50 house fathers vouching for the salary of the minister.
In the 16th century Adelboden joined the Reformation, the Catholic minister fled over the Hahnenmoospass to the Catholic Canton of Fribourg.
Up to the 19th century, the only way to Frutigen was high on the south slope of the Engstligen valley and often impassable in winter. In the late 19th century a road along the Engstligen river was built joining Adelboden to the rest of the world.
In the 1870s the first boarding house was opened by one of the local teachers. It developed into a hotel, which is still in the possession of the same family (hotel Hari im Schlegeli). Around the turn of the century tourism led to a big increase in the population.
Adelboden was the destination of the first packaged winter sports holidays (vacations), organised by Sir Henry Lunn in 1903.
Into the 1930s the aerial ropeway to the Engstligenalp was built with further ropeways following. The Silleren area was up into the 1980s accessible by buses.
Rafael Sabatini died and is buried in Abelboden.

Main sights and cultural events

★ Engstligen falls: the Engstligen river falls 600 m over rocks into the depth and forms one of the most impressive waterfalls in the Bernese Oberland. Very impressive is the "Alpaufzug" when 350 cows are driven upward on the narrow seam path through the cliff to the summer pasture on the Engstligenalp.

★ Engstligenalp: plateau on 2000 m height

★ The town's church, with early-20th centuries glassworks by Alberto Giacometti.
Cultural events include:

★ FIS World Cup alpine ski races (January/February)

★ Vogellisi-Festival (Live music, July)

★ Kammermusic-festival (Chamber music, July)

Languages

The language is ''Adelbodnertütsch'', which belongs to the Bernese Oberland dialects with some loans from Valais dialects and belongs to Highest Alemannic.

Government

Legislation is adopted by the twice annual general assembly.
Executive is the local council with nine members, all of them honorary.

Economics

Adelboden has a good mixture of agriculture, local industry (wood building companies, mineral water source) and tourism. People work in tourism, (approx. 490 persons), other services (approx. 500 persons), construction industry (approx. 310 persons), automobile industry (approx. 30 persons), mineral water source (approx. 45 persons) and agriculture (fulltime approx. 45 persons), taxidermy (fulltime approx. 16 persons)

Tourism and sport

Tourism in Adelboden is specially aligned to families.
Adelboden has 24 hotels with 1,291 beds, 3,800 vacation homes with 15,200 beds, 28 group accommodations with 1,830 beds, 3 camping sites and 40 restaurants.
In the summer there are 200 km of hiking trails, from sedate walks to alpine climbing-rises. Numerous mountain railways lead up to the mountains. Additional offers are numerous mountain bike routes, airplane model construction on Hahnenmoospass mit Werkstatt with workshop, wind and landing opportunities.
In the winter there are ski runs of all degrees of difficulty, including the world cup giant slalom run on the [Kuonisbärgli] as well as cross country skiing trails. Further offered are 40 km of winter hiking trails. For snowboarders there are freeride and freestyle runs.
The Adelboden slalom and giant slalom are considered classics of FIS Alpine World Cup. A complete list of winners follows:

Date	Race	Winner	Nationality
9 January 1967	Giant slalom	Jean-Claude Killy
8 January 1968	Giant slalom	Jean-Claude Killy
6 January 1969	Giant slalom	Jean-Noël Augert
5 January 1970	Giant slalom	Karl Schranz
18 January 1971	Giant slalom	Patrick Russel
24 January 1972	Giant slalom	Werner Mattle
15 January 1973	Giant slalom	Gustav Thöni
21 January 1974	Giant slalom	Gustav Thöni
13 January 1975	Giant slalom	Piero Gros
12 January 1976	Giant slalom	Gustav Thöni
24 January 1977	Giant slalom	Heini Hemmi
17 January 1978	Giant slalom	Andreas Wenzel
16 January 1979	Giant slalom	Ingemar Stenmark
22 January 1980	Giant slalom	Ingemar Stenmark
25 January 1981	Giant slalom	Ingemar Stenmark
19 January 1982	Giant slalom	Ingemar Stenmark
11 January 1983	Giant slalom	Pirmin Zurbriggen
10 January 1984	Giant slalom	Ingemar Stenmark
15 January 1985	Giant slalom	Hans Enn
28 January 1986	Giant slalom	Richard Pramotton
13 January 1987	Giant slalom	Pirmin Zurbriggen
17 January 1989	Giant slalom	Marc Girardelli
15 January 1991	Giant slalom	Marc Girardelli
22 January 1992	Giant slalom	Ole Kristian Furuseth
4 February 1995	Giant slalom	Alberto Tomba
16 January 1996	Giant slalom	Michael von Grünigen
14 January 1997	Giant slalom	Kjetil André Aamodt
13 January 1998	Giant slalom	Hermann Maier
12 January 1999	Giant slalom	Hermann Maier
20 February 2000	Slalom	Matjaz Vrhovnik
9 January 2001	Giant slalom	Hermann Maier
5 January 2002	Giant slalom	Didier Cuche
6 January 2002	Slalom	Bode Miller
14 January 2003	Giant slalom	Hans Knauss
7 February 2004	Giant slalom	Kalle Palander
8 February 2004	Slalom	Rainer Schönfelder
11 January 2005	Giant slalom	Massimiliano Blardone
7 January 2006	Giant slalom	Benjamin Raich
8 January 2006	Slalom	Giorgio Rocca
6 January 2007	Giant slalom	Benjamin Raich
7 January 2007	Slalom	Marc Berthod

Traffic

Adelboden has only one incoming road connecting from Frutigen which connects via Spiez to the N6 and Berne there is no transit traffic.
Frutigen is a train station of the Loetschberglinie, connecting to Berne and Brig and from there on are hourly post office autocourses.
There is an old mountain pass route via Engstligenalp (mountain railway) and Chindbettipass to the Gemmi Pass and into the Valais which is still used by hikers, and another connection via Hahnenmoospass (mountain railway) into the valley of Lenk which was formerly used as trade route to the lake of Geneva.
Adelboden has numerous mountain railways and local bus line connecting the outer valleys with the main village.

Schools

In Adelboden there is a primary school, middle-school and a secondary school, the nearest high school is in Frutigen.

See also

★ History of skiing

External links

★ Adelboden tourism

★ Adelboden tourism

★ Vogellisi-Festival