Crans-Montana

A taste of high altitude lifestyle

Author
Claude Hervé-Bazin
Copyright
A. Trüb | Charnaux | Charles Dubost | Bibliothèque de Crans-Montana
Release
Hiver 2024-2025

Since the dawn of modern history, Crans-Montana has been shaped by entrepreneurial men and women who love the mountains. Here, grazing pastures meet slopes that are known as the El Dorado of the ski world, and Alpine “mayen” (chalets) rub shoulders with today’s modern buildings.

Once up a time there was just a south-facing plateau that overlooked the depths of the Rhône Valley. Sierre lay below, at least two thousand years old, with its sun-soaked vineyards. High above were Alpine pastures and the summits of the Bernese Alps, which hid the seracs of the Plaine Morte Glacier, one the largest glacial plateaus in the Alps.

And thus, the scene was set. Ranging from 1,400-1,500 m in altitude, the acres of the high plateau unfold over steep slopes. This was grazing land, which used to only come to life in the spring and fall when the men would take their cattle from the villages up to alpine pastures and stay in the mayens (high-altitude chalets). It was a vertical migration, a ritual to mark the changing seasons: winter below, summer up high… otherwise only undertaken occasionally to care for the vineyards or perform repairs on the local “bisses” (irrigation canals). A worthwhile and noble land reputed even then for its mild weather. 

The mountains reinvented
In the early 1890s, two men from lower Valais — Michel Zufferey and his brother-in-law Louis Antille — fell in love with the high plateau while on a hunting trip. Tourism was just taking root. For more than half a century, British and French travellers had been drawn to Valais and its reputation for being a lost paradise. British painter JMW Turner sealed the deal, while the conquest of the Matterhorn fed the imaginations of the urban middle class, who dreamed of affronting the mountain wilderness. There was already a train that stopped in Sierre, and work soon began on the Simplon Tunnel, which would allow travel to Italy.

In 1893, the Grand Hôtel du Parc was built above Montana. It could only be reached by mule or aboard a sedan chair from Corin, which was adorned with parasols and carried by frockcoat wearing porters. Three years later a toll road was built. Nearby in Savièse, Raphaël Ritz and Ernest Biéler attracted a community of artists who were smitten by their mountain themed paintings. Picturesque scenes were all the rage, depicting an idealized authentic way of life that avoided the harsh realities of country and city living. It wasn’t long before painter Albert Muret moved to Lens and began painting the high plateau.

The rise of health resorts
One day in 1896, Michel Zufferey was visited by Dr. Théodore Stephani, a “rather crazy” tuberculosis specialist from Leysin who was looking for a destination for his tuberculosis patients. With its warm sun, clean air and low winds, the high plateau enchanted him. Soon the doctor was (accurately) quoted in the Swiss Romand medical journal saying the area is one of the sunniest in the country, with 2,200 hours of sunshine a year.

A dozen of the doctor’s patients arrived at the Grand Hôtel du Parc, where Dr. Stephani installed central heating and Valais’ first telephone line… meanwhile, the local people of the high plateau and Montana lived frugally and were almost entirely still self-sufficient. Dr. Stephani did care for anyone who was sick, leading to (mostly) widespread acceptance of his new foreigner-driven industry. Coexistence was still occasionally heated, especially between the patients and other tourists, who feared contagion.

In late 1899, Genevan investors financed the construction of the Beauregard sanatorium (later converted into the Bellevue Palace hotel). The panoramic views of the Valais Alps helped people heal, that much is certain. Other saunas quickly sprung up, along with the Forest Hotel in Vermala. The following year (1905), the Société de Développement de Montana (SDM) — whose members were all key players in the area — obtained a moratorium from the Lens municipality that forbade all new hotel construction for the next 50 years.

Nevertheless, sanatoriums and health resorts multiplied. The best among them had telephones, running water in all the rooms, numerous bathrooms, an elevator and even “pine forests ideal for healthy fresh air”. In 1911, the Sierre-Montana-Vermala funicular was built — the longest (4.2 km) in Switzerland — shaving three hours off the time it took to reach the station.

An athletic DNA
Sir Henry Lunn loved the plateau’s flower-covered prairies and purchased the Bellevue. In 1906, the greens of the area’s first nine-hole golf course replaced the pastures; the next nine holes were added two years later. Post-war golf took off thanks to Élisée and Albert Bonvin, who were originally from Chermignon. The former caretakers of the Parisian Ritz opened the Golf and Sports Hotel in 1914 — the first in Crans (although it was not called Crans then). Others followed, encouraged by the creation of the Société de Développement de Crans (SDC) in 1928. Montana was for the sick, Crans was for the athletes…

Arnold Lunn, Henry’s son, launched the area’s first ski competition in 1911: The Lord Roberts of Kandahar Cup Challenge. It was a gruelling race, which took the winner one hour and one minute to complete, going from the Plaine Morte Glacier to the ski resort. The Montana-Vermala section of the CAS was founded in 1920, leading to the creation of the Cabane des Violettes and the first ski club in the 1930s. The first ski lift (a funiluge), which could transport 20 skiers at once, had already been replaced by a drag lift. Royalty from Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Italy all visited Montana-Crans (as it was called), contributing to its rise in notoriety. Léopold III even built himself a chalet there. Then in 1939, the Swiss Open took place for the first time on what is currently the Severiano Ballesteros golf course, and never left. Soon intellectuals and movie stars were making the pilgrimage.

The legend was official. After the war, local mechanical ski lift companies developed, and Alpine skiing exploded in popularity. For the ski resort, the 1987 Alpine World Ski Championships were historic: the Swiss team won eight of the ten medals! Urbanism gradually transformed the area, visually merging Crans and Montana, which are now fully integrated. Looking ahead, there’s a new chapter on the horizon: The 2027 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, which is sure to be the area’s next major milestone.