Switzerland’s Cresta Run is a natural ice toboggan run first built in the winter of 1884/5. It is built from scratch every year with snow which is then iced. It starts in St. Moritz and ends in the village of what was then Cresta but is now part of Celerina. It is the most famous and feared toboggan track in the world. Riders have suffered broken necks, backs, fingers, feet and hips. They’ve had fatalities, the latest was in 2017 when 72-year old experienced rider Ralph Hubbard broke his neck.
As mentioned in the St. Moritz article, the British started tobogganing in St. Moritz when they got bored by adapting a goods delivery sled. Trust the British to always find fun wherever they are including in a frozen village, 1800m up the Engadine Valley 139 years ago! Three years after building the first Cresta Run, they formed the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club, (SMTC) with the purpose of "...the conduct of races and practice on the Cresta Run and the encouragement of tobogganing generally..." The club is the world's oldest private sporting association.
The Cresta Run remains one of the last truly amateur sports. Individual riders hurtle down the 1.2km track head-first, using rakes on the end of special boots to brake
and steer at speeds of up to 132kph. There are 2 starting points - Top and Junction, a third of the way down. The Top starting point is only for experienced riders. It has 10 corners and each has a name. The most infamous is called the Shuttlecock, which acts as a safety-valve. If a rider loses control, they go out at Shuttlecock corner into a carefully prepared falling area of snow and straw (photo Shuttlecock Corner). But even flipping out at Shuttlecock corner has its privileges. They automatically become a member of the Shuttlecock Club and are entitled to wear the tie.
The video below captures the turns and high speeds of this run:
Women had been allowed to race on equal terms with men until the 1920s until it was deemed ‘medically dangerous’. In more recent decades, women could compete only on a token end-of-season ladies' day on the lower track. Otherwise, the run remained closed to women for 90 years, although rumour has it that a Swiss female rider was said to have gone down after pretending to be her husband. The ban was lifted in 2018 and the following year, Carina Evans, a 41 year-old British Army reservist and mother-of-two, became the first woman to descend the iconic run. She said: 'I'm black and blue all over, but it was worth every bruise.'
Will I give it a go? I love toboganning for the view going down. I love toboganning but at speeds I can control. But watch this space…
Read skier Abigail Butcher’s account of going down the Cresta Run:
For more information about the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club:
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