An Historical Week

In 1930 when Helen Storrow and Falk were searching for the perfect location for a Guide world meeting centre they tried many places in Switzerland. When Helen Storrow thought they’d found the perfect place, Falk disagreed. Helen Storrow thought that one particular place, located in Aeschi, came up to all her expectations and believed one could find “peace for the soul” there. Falk pointed out though, that “the modern youth was no more concerned with the peace of their souls than [she] had been” as a teenager. So, they continued searching for a place that could offer adventure to the youth of the day and eventually found the spot on which Our Chalet now stands.

Former and Current Staff Jan 2012

Returning to the present, it seems Falk was right and indeed the “youth” have been enjoying the adventure that Our Chalet and Adelboden have to offer ever since. We have just come to the end of the staff reunion for 2012 and it has been a great, if not tiring, week. We had guests who were staff in the 1970s, one person from the 80s and one from the 90s. We also had some from 2010 as well as, of course, the current staff. The week was a lot different to normal because unlike most guests, these ones know more about Our Chalet than we do! Instead of them asking questions about the Chalet, we were the ones asking them about how the Chalet had been in their time. One common theme in the stories, however, has been the adventure – even if the adventure has changed over the years.

For the volunteers from the 1990s and earlier, the winter season was all about skiing. They would ski at least five days a week and could ski all the way from Our Chalet to the bottom of the gondola at Oey and back again at the end of the day, something we would struggle to do today due to one of the lifts no longer being there. They also used to make and serve breakfast, then as the guests walked to the gondola, the staff would wash up and then race them there! Today we offer a much wider programme than just skiing, whether you consider that to be a good thing or not. Since I have been here, yes I’ve done a lot of skiing but I have also hiked to the top of Elsighorn (2341m), cross country skied and tobogganed almost everywhere!

Kat, Gaenor, Katie and Emily - Elsighorn

What’s been most impressive about the week is that the adventure still lives on. I had the privilege of skiing with Inge, who was Guider in Charge (now called World Centre Manager) from 1968-75 and still supports Our Chalet and pops in from time to time. Even at over 70 years old she is still incredibly active and out-skies everybody here. In fact, at some point during the week every one of the guests was still skiing, whether that be cross country or downhill. They also went snow tubing and hiking. All I can say is; I hope I am still that active at their age!

With this week over we are now awaiting the arrival of a group from Perth, Australia whose leader is an ex-volunteer. We also have a group of USA Girl Scouts Overseas coming from Saudi Arabia which should be good fun!