Depending on who you speak to, St Moritz can conjure up very different ideas in people’s heads. For some, it’s a wealthy person’s playground where the richest of the rich go to spend incomprehensible amounts of money on designer clothing, expensive dinners, posh hotels, and horse-on-snow-based activities. For others, it’s a mecca for winter sports; the place where it all began, the Big Bang. Nowhere in St Moritz, it seems, encompasses both these perceptions of the place quite like the SMTC and the Cresta (although, as of yet, nobody has ever attempted the Cresta on the back of a horse).

Started in 1885, with the club itself being formed in 1887, the Cresta Run cuts through a corner of Switzerland’s breathtakingly beautiful Engadin valley like a racer snake in a David Attenborough documentary. The run, built every year out of snow, ice, and banks of earth is one of the only tracks in the world dedicated specifically to headfirst tobogganing (not to be confused with skeleton bob and luge).

For Gary, a former investment manager no stranger to the balance between risk and reward in the business world, it’s all about approaching the Cresta with the right kind of mindset; about appreciating its dangers and pinpointing where exactly the line that separates fast riding and dangerous riding is situated.

“You have to enjoy taking risks, but we’re people who enjoy taking calculated risks. I’m sure most people could go faster. Everybody can go faster, but it’s how fast can you go and stay in the course. Everyone here is trying to find out where the limit is. It’s a dangerous sport, but you don’t have to be crazy to do it. I think you have to be interested in doing something really fast, exhilarating, and athletic. And reaping all the rewards that come with that,” he tells me.

“People do get addicted to it though, no doubt. There are riders and members champing at the bit through most of the summer and autumn, desperate for the Cresta to open. And I think that’s a lot to do with the run, but it’s also a lot to do with the camaraderie of the group and the membership really.”

With Etonians, Lords, Viscounts, Barons and millionaires making up their number down the years; the legend of the STMC membership has taken on a life of its own. Throw in the fact that the club still upholds a widely thought of as sexist ‘no women riders’ policy, except on their annual Ladies Day, and it’s easy to see why the Cresta membership is such a sticking point for many.

With Switzerland traditionally being one of the most expensive places to go skiing in Europe, a situation not improved by the pound’s decreasing value, and St Moritz being home to so much lavish luxury it’s easy to assume that all the Cresta members fall into the same socio-economic bracket when you’re on the outside looking in. However, Gary seems keen to play down the widely held perception that the club is in anyway snobbish and instead wants to talk up the membership’s shared mentality and passion for sport.

“There’s a myth that this is all just a load of wealthy British guys coming up here, and doing something silly. And people who circulate that myth miss the depth of the thing; that this is a real sport…We have a very close-knit club of like-minded souls, a club that’s quite difficult to get into. It’s rare for an applicant to get in the first time. I didn’t get in the first time I applied and one of my friends said the only reason you apply the first time is that then you then become eligible to apply a second time. But I think it’s a fairly broad church in terms of nationalities, professions, all sorts of income groups,” Gary tells me.

Whether a place where the fastest time ever recorded is held by a Lord (Lord Wrottesley) and the slowest time ever recorded from Junction, the start point for Beginners, is according to legend held by one Baron Raunchy can ever be labelled a “broad church” is a matter of debate; one we’ll save for another time. Gary later informs me that the male membership is about half and half in terms of Brits and non-Brits. 

“You have to come here and be interested in tobogganing, and the Cresta,” says Gary, when I push him on the membership screening process, “You don’t have to be a great rider or a great sportsman, but you have to know people. You have to have a lot of support. We don’t just have a ‘firster’ and ‘seconder’, and then that’s ticked off. You have to have a fairly deep and broad support from other people. You have to be known. But as one of our former presidents used to say, the only real rule is that you can’t be boring. That is the one we try very hard to maintain. You cannot be boring.”

One thing nobody could ever lay at the Cresta Run’s door is that it’s boring. In fact, during my whole stay in St Moritz there were very few things I would label as “boring.” This whole area pulsates with a ‘go big, or go home’ mentality. Whether it’s the extreme velocity on offer at its local toboggan run, its world cup free fall that will see elite skiers hit speeds of 140km/h in just six seconds, or consecutive nights in La Baracca – easily one of the maddest and most fun bars I’ve ever been to; an establishment run by a man who looks like a cross between Albert Einstein and Dustin Hoffman – St Moritz treats everything with that same approach. Be memorable, or be nothing. Be the best you can be, or don’t even bother. Take things to the limit, go beyond it and then go beyond it some more.

While in St Moritz, I take a tour of the Kempinski’s 18,000CHF (£14,100) a night Presidential Suite and come across the biggest bed I’ve ever seen; a bed I’m convinced is bigger than my entire flat. I attend a cocktail party where the upper echelons of society wine, dine, and win expensive prizes. One night, I make the mistake of agreeing to buy a round of three very normal drinks and almost swallow my own tongue with regret when the barmaid asks for 45CHF (approximately £35). I see how wealthy folk spend their time and money in St Moritz and, if I’m being honest, I bathe in this extravagance more than I thought I would while all the while trying to remain mindful that the world is an increasingly unequal place and that I shouldn’t let this place go to my head.

Whenever you get a rush sliding down a mountain, wherever in the world that mountain may be, you owe a debt of gratitude to the mavericks who started it all in St Moritz over 100 years ago. Past glories and daring acts of bravery continue to reverberate in these parts, as well as further afield. And with the immovable Cresta Club, the alpine skiing world championships happening next year, and talks surrounding a third Winter Olympics in St Moritz never really off the table – this Swiss mountain getaway looks all set to stay at the top of the class for sport, as well as luxury, for many years to come. 

DO IT YOURSELF:

Getting there:

Swiss International Air Lines

UK & Ireland to Zurich: SWISS (Swiss.com) offers up to 119 weekly flights from London City, Heathrow, Gatwick (seasonal), Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh (seasonal) and Dublin to Zurich.  All-inclusive fares start from £67 one-way.

For more information visit the website, or call 0345 601 0956.

Swiss Travel System

The Swiss Travel System (swisstravelsystem.co.uk) provides a dedicated range of travel passes and tickets exclusively for visitors from abroad. The Swiss Transfer Ticket covers a round-trip between the airport/Swiss border and your destination. Prices are £116 in second class and £188 in first class.

For more information, call 00800 100 200 30 or visit the website.

Accommodation:

We stayed at the Kempinski Grand Hôtel des Bains (kempinski.com).

Cresta Run:

If you’re a beginner looking to ride the Cresta Run (cresta-run.com), you can book a slot by choosing a practice session slot on their calendar and following instructions from there.  All beginners are required to review, and agree to the club’s terms and conditions.

To read the rest of December’s Excess issue head here

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