The peak itself exudes its own magic, even though the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau opposite are more familiar mountain names. The secret of the Lauberhorn, though, is not to climb it as daringly and skilfully as possible: It’s to swoop down it as fast as one can. Because the Lauberhorn is the ultimate downhill skiing challenge.

When Ernst Gertsch floated the idea of a Lauberhorn race back in skiing’s early days, people laughed. Undaunted, he set about accumulating a budget of 500 Swiss francs (around 8.7 million today). The “Hore”, as the locals call the peak, hosted its first races on 1 and 2 February 1930. First came the downhill, and then the slalom, which was only contested by the top 40 finishers in the downhill event. The slalom victor was Ernst himself – despite a 5-second time penalty for missing a gate! The course back then crossed the local rail line, over which a wooden platform had to be laid. If a train came along, the race was interrupted and the platform removed. Competitors from five nations took part, and they included women. One participant, named Miss Carole in the rankings, outclassed 20 men. It didn’t impress Sport magazine, though. “We make no secret of our view that skiing is not a women’s sport,” its editor growled.

For the races’ first 20 years, the locals set the tone. Karl Molitor notched up eleven victories, six of them in the downhill. “The Lauberhorn is a masterpiece of the Almighty,” he is alleged to have said. Bernhard Russi, course architect and ski legend sans pareil, has also voiced his admiration for this natural wonder. “When you stand there at the start and take in that panorama,” he says, “it’s just a humbling experience.” For his first Lauberhorn start, though, he was so nervous at what lay ahead that he’d still have preferred to leave the starting hut the way he’d come in.

The Lauberhorn downhill course is 4.5 kilometres long – longer than any other. And it’s very unforgiving, making triumph and tragedy the nearest of neighbours. Several features of the course have been named, in fact, after those who have fallen there. The Minschkante is where Jos Minsch broke his hip; the Canadian Corner claimed almost an entire Canada contingent; the Kernen S is where Bruno Kernen and the course parted company; and the Österreicher Loch (Austrian Hole) once took out no fewer than seven Austrian competitors, including the great Toni Sailer, who would go on to win four Lauberhorns before embarking on a singing career and becoming skiing’s first “pop star”. 

The Haneggschuss section sees competitors reach speeds of over 160 km/h. The all-time record is currently held by French skier Johan Clarey: 161.9 km/h. “That was always the trickiest part for me,” recalls five-time overall World Cup cham-pion Marc Girardelli. “I was really scared there. You’re running at this phenomenal speed towards a compression that’s usually in the shade.” Along-side the legendary Jean-Claude Killy, Girardelli is the only man to have claimed the Lauberhorn downhill, slalom and combined crowns.

Wengen is also the only event organiser to maintain these three traditional disciplines and still offer – despite the opposing trend at the FIS International Ski Federation – the classic down-hill-plus-slalom combined. It’s been in the programme since 1967, when the World Cup era began. And it’s even run today the way it was 90 years ago. Ernst Gertsch, the “Father of the Lauberhorn”, truly was ahead of his time.

The World Cup has made the Lauberhorn races even more important, and helped them grow into an event that attracts a good 70,000 spectators to the course each year and a further million TV viewers in Switzerland alone. Few people are better qualified to describe its magic than two-time downhill winner Beat Feuz. “If you don’t love the Lauberhorn, it’s your loss,” he says. “The atmosphere is simply unique. Even on the train from Lauterbrunnen up to Wengen: You sit packed into this carriage, among all the fans. It’s like stepping back 50 years in time.»