The story of ski racing comes full circle at Crans-Montana

I’m here to meet Pierre-Henri Mainetti, head of sales and marketing for the resort, and, with a couple of locally brewed beers and a piste map on the table between us, he outlines the various changes taking place in anticipation of this major event. “The most significant change directly relating to the World Championships,” he says, pointing to the map, “will be a newly constructed arrival stadium here, at the bottom of the men’s Downhill course, the Nationale. In addition, we are also putting snowmaking equipment in place so we can guarantee the event can go ahead.”

There are changes afoot further up the mountain, too. To skier’s left of the Nationale piste, Mainetti says, just a few hundred metres down from the top of the Nationale Express chairlift, a “small village area” will be created, from which spectators will be able to watch the racers as they come powering past the Cry d’Er lift station.

The events making up the 2027 World Championships will actually be held on two different courses. Starting just below the Cry d’Er station, at an altitude of 2,210m, the Mont Lachaux course will host the women’s events (Downhill, Super-G, Slalom and Team Combined), as well as the men’s Slalom events. However, it’s the Nationale – the course that will host the men’s Downhill and Super-G events – that many ski tourists will seek to tick off their bucket lists.

The men’s Super-G course begins at around the same altitude as the Mont Lachaux course, and the starting points for both can be accessed from the Cry d’Er station. To get the full Nationale experience, however, it’s necessary to take the Bellalui lift (sponsored by Prada, natch) further up the mountain, to an altitude of 2,543m. Due to the ongoing construction works around the arrival stadium the very last section of the Nationale course is currently closed, but from this lofty starting point it’s still possible to ski the vast majority of this thigh-burning, 3.8km long rollercoaster, and to get a sense of how the various different sections link together.

After a tricky, slightly off-camber opening section called Dévers de Bellalui (literally “the Tilt of Bellalui”), the course cuts left and drops down steeply past the Cry d’Er station, before following an imposing cliff band to skier’s right. There’s then an undulating flatter section – Plat des Houles (“The Flat of the Waves”) – after which the course passes under the Nationale Express chairlift before dropping steeply to the left at Mur de Mélèzes (“Larch Wall”).

This sudden dip enables skiers to hit the next, tree-lined section – Bosses de la Forêt – with as much velocity as they feel comfortable with. Professional racers will reach speeds of around 120kph here; recreational skiers, by contrast, might prefer to make more leisurely progress and enjoy the jaw-dropping views across the valley towards the distant Matterhorn and Dent Blanche. Then it’s on to the course’s closing section: a swift right-left zig-zag, one last jump to test tired legs, a final right turn and then the finish line where, in February 2027, with the newly completed stadium packed with fans, the atmosphere should be electric.

In a sense, when the World Championships come to Crans-Montana in 2027, the sport of ski racing will be returning home. In his 2022 book Around the World in 50 Slopes, British ski journalist Patrick Thorne points out that the first ever organised ski race was held here back in 1911.

“Mountain holidays pioneer Henry Lunn,” he writes, “had been searching for a location where you could ski on a relatively constant pitch, without too many turns, to avoid falling”, and at Crans-Montana he found what he was looking for.

On 6 January, with no ski lifts to rely on, competitors hiked for six hours up to the hut at Wildstrubel (2,791m). Then, at 10am the following day they raced over a mostly downhill course with a couple of uphill sections. Cecil Hopkinson won in a time of 61 minutes, and was awarded the Roberts of Kandahar Challenge Cup, donated by Field Marshal Earl Roberts of Kandahar.

Lunn moved the race to Mürren the following year, but these days it’s still possible to ski the rambling 12km Kandahar run named after the race all the way from the Plaine Morte glacier at 2,927m to the bottom of the Barzettes lift, 1,417m below. No six-hour hike required.

Roger Cox travelled to Crans-Montana courtesy of Travel Switzerland, www.travelswitzerland.com, staying at the Valaisia Hotel, www.faernresorts.com/crans-montana and with ski hire supplied by Ski & Ride Signal. For more on Crans-Montana, visit www.crans-montana.ch/en/