Adelboden

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For other places with the same name, see Adelboden (disambiguation).

Adelboden

Canton	Bern
District	Frutigen
Coordinates	46°30′N 7°34′E
Population	3,552 (December 2002)
Area	88.2 km²
Elevation	1,350 m
Postal code	3715
SFOS number	0561
Website	www.3715.ch
Adelboden

Adelboden is a municipality in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Main sights and cultural events
4 Languages
5 Government
6 Economics
7 Tourism and sport
8 Traffic
9 Schools
10 See also
11 External links

[edit] 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.

Panorama of Adelboden.

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 (3,242 m), Fitzer (2,458 m), Tschenten (2,025 m) (mountain railway) and Gsür (2,708 m).

[edit] 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.

Engstligenalp plateau in winter.

[edit] 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)

[edit] Languages

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

[edit] Government

Legislation is adopted by the twice annual general assembly.

Executive is the local council with nine members, all of them honorary.

[edit] 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).

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

[edit] 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.