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| I think all Brits should be exempt as auslanders anyway as far as the piste quota is concerned.
As far as recreational skiing in Swizerland is concerned (and possibly all downhill skiing as a tourist activity) the infrastructure only was started in the 1910s because of the Brits coming over and taking it up.
I read somewhere that it all started in Murren (even before Sir Arnold Lunn). | |
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Some additional information here :
things would begin to change from 1860 onwards with the emergence of modern downhill skiing. In 1902, Berne and Glarus would host the first downhill and ski jumping competitions. Skiing only became a truly mass-market sport in Switzerland after 1920.
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In the mid-19th century, a number of hotels began cropping up in Mürren, a remote mountain village in the Bernese Alps, aided no doubt by the arrival of the railways in 1889. This made it possible for tourists to travel with ease from Lauterbrunnen to Mürren. Sir Arnold Lunn chose Mürren as the venue for the first ever slalom skiing race, held in 1922. Not only did this Englishman invent the slalom, he was also the brains behind the legendary “Inferno Race”, the largest and most challenging amateur ski race in the world (Schilthorn – Lauterbrunnen). In 1931, three years after the first Inferno race was held, the Lauterbrunnen valley was host to be the venue for another first – the World Ski Championships.