Review Of The 2023/24 Winter Season On The Schilthorn

A look back at the 2023/2024 winter season shows a mixed picture: Despite an early start to the season, good snow conditions at higher altitudes and well-known events, a few violent foehn storms have had an impact on visitor numbers. This results in a small minus for the first entries.

There are still heavy amounts of snow on the Schilthorn, but a long winter season came to a successful end at the end of April. The start of the season was promising: Thanks to snow farming in the Engetal, operation of the Riggli chairlift was able to begin as planned on November 4, 2023. From the very beginning, excellent training opportunities were offered for young cadres in alpine skiing as well as freestyle skiing and snowboarding. The offer was widely used and the available slopes were fully booked early. With two FIS Alpine ski races and FIS freestyle events, there was an opportunity to hold international competitions early in the season.

Small decline in visitor numbers

The successful start was suddenly slowed down by several foehn storms in the second half of the season. In March alone, two weekends were completely shut down. At Easter, the facilities and slopes even had to be closed completely and continuously from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. These storm-related closures ultimately left their mark on visitor numbers: compared to the previous year, there was a one percent drop in first-time admissions.

Event highlights as visitor magnets

Despite foehn storms and mixed weather windows, there were always highlights to celebrate: In January, Mürren was firmly in the hands of the International Inferno Races. For the 80th time, 1,850 racers took on the traditional and devilish downhill route from the small Schilthorn to the Winteregg. The highlight at the end of the season was the world's best freestylers celebrating at the Swatch Nines in the freeski and snowboard disciplines. On the unique setup with the Perfect Hip, a gigantic jump in the center, three world records were broken during the event: The Swiss freeskier Kim Gubser reached a huge height of 14.6 meters with his jump. Valentino Guseli from Australia dominated the jump on the snowboard and the Canadian freeskier Brooke D'Hondt was the high-flyer in the women's competition.

Outlook for the coming winter season

With a view to the next winter season, the conveying capacity of the Winteregg chairlift will be expanded by 33 percent, or by 17 hooded chairs, in summer 2024 (the company has reported). Fans of the Schilthorn downhill run have to be strong in winter: Due to the new construction of the Birg-Schilthorn cable car section as part of the SCHILTHORNBAHN 20XX project, the Schilthorn will be closed from October 14th, 2024 to March 14th, 2025.