|
|
Scuol - Motta Naluns
The Engadine valley is one of the most beautiful regions in Switzerland. While better know St Moritz is in the Upper Engadine Valley, Scuol is a nice little resort with a famous spa in the Lower Engadine Valley. It's also a paradise for skilift friends - the first Gondola was erected in 1956 by Giovanola, and until 1994, the only known triple t-bar (with connected towers) worldwide stood here (WSO). There are ore have been lifts by Giovanola, Habegger, Bühler, Garaventa, Doppelmayr, Staedeli and Poma in the Motta Naluns ski area. 
Rest of the Graubünden region
You'll find misc pics from the south-easterly swiss region in this gallery .
Check this out
- Savognin: Here are some pictures from lifts that have been removed a long ago thanks to a school camp in 1988 - like a Mueller Gondola from the 1960s.
- Feldis: A nice old Habegger Gondola ride from Rhäzüns to Feldis - this lift will be removed in 2006.
Jura
 I've been living in Berne, the swiss capital, ever since 1993. Many smaller ski areas in the Jura hills can be easily reached from here. The most famous for night skiing is the Balmberg region in the canton of Solothurn. I also grew up in the Jura hills, in the canton of Baselland (near Basel or Basle). Wasserfallen or Langenbruck were our closest ski areas back then. The tbars on the Wasserfallen mountain have been removed in the 90s. The Muller Gondola from 1956 will be removed in 2006 and replaced by a modern Garaventa ride.
Check this out
Jungfrauregion
 Known almost all over the world, the Jungrau region (with Wengen, Grindelwald, Mürren and Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe) is or has been home to some very interesting t-bars and chairs.
Check this out
- Lauberhorn: There used to be a tbar in the early days of skiing at the Kleine Scheidegg
- Männlichen: Even this used to be a tbar
- Innerwengen: First a skilift with woodden towers, then a super slow double chair, now a hispeed quad
Berner Oberland
All that does not belong to the Jungfrau region.
Check this out
Wallis
 Pictures from the world famous Zermatt region - but also from the rest of the canton of Valais or Wallis. From Zermatt, you can easily reach Italy and its far-better-than-the-swiss restaurants...
Check this out
Tebru - Theo Brunner, a swiss lift pioneer
 This is one of the interesting stories of skilift history. In summer 2004, I got a message from Peter Brunner - he said he's got some stuff from his father who recently died that might be of interest for me. That was true: Buried under some inches of dust, there was plenty of hardware from the earliest days of skilft history. T-bars, sheave train prototypes, drawings, ... Theodor Brunner never made any money out of his inventions, but the stuff proves that he was one of the most important constructors of swiss cableway history. He especially invented most of the Stadeli / WSO technology. As soon as I have some more time, there willne more Tebru stories here. Big thanks to his son Peter who granted access to Theo's stuff.
Check this out
- Hardware: T-bars, grips, sheaves...
- Leaflets: There were several papers from other companies in Theo's archives
WSO - Städeli Lift AG, Oetwil am See
The cpmpany was sold to Garaventa in 1991, but lots of childhood memories connect me with WSO. Most early lifts in Sedrun were built by WSO. I sent many skilift drawings to the company when I  was a boy, and asked for a t-bar. And I even got one - and an invitation to have a look at the factory in Oetwil near Zurich. Walter Staedeli himself lead us through his factory and invited me and my parents to dinner. We sent letters to each other for many years.
As we know today from several sources, most WSO technology was developed by Theo Brunner (see above) who worked at the WSO factory until the early 1960s, but Walter and Theo never got along very well and Theo was kicked out. WSO even took over his company sign.
Walter Städeli died on december 11, 2006 in Oetwil (Zurich) and is buried at the Oetwil cemetary.
Check this out
T-Bars
Jakob Schuler from Orpund certainly has one of the biggest t-bar collections on this planet.  I do also have some of my own - especially all important Städeli inventions.
My parents almost went mad when I asked them to take as many pictures of t-bars as possible ("what a waste of film!") or had to wait for me when I was playing with t-bars. Today we can be quite happy that I insisited - many photos in this gallery are from the 1970s and 1980s.
Check this out
- Oehler: One of the first swiss t-bars
- WSO: Probably the most used t-bar in the 1960s
PDF File Ddownloads
Tickets
Here are some ski tickets from the 1960s until today.
All Around The World
I did not only ski the swiss alps but also the volcano Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand - here are some pictures from Germany, France, Italy, North Carolina, Vermont, California, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, New Zealand and Canada.
Check this out
Emmental, Mittelland, Voralpen
Some lifts of the more flat areas of Switzerland.
Chrüsimüsi
This swiss german word means something like "mixed up stuff" - in other words: You're going to find stuff here that doesn't fit in other topics, like pictures from museums, snowmaking equipment, drawnings etc.
Eastern Switzerland
I'm not often in this region, but you'll find a video of some old ski lifts here in the Flumserberg area.
Central Switzerland
Some images from the cantons uf Uri, Lucerne etc.
Links
There are great ski lift sites out there - here's some of'em:
skiliftfotos.ch - powered by jacomet.ch
Image thieves will be prosecuted - please respect copyright law, thanks.
© 2005 Andi Jacomet / Leave a message
This site can also be reached at skilift-fotos.ch, skiliftbilder.ch and skilift-bilder.ch
|
|
|
Well, t-bars are not an everyday hobby as collecting stamps is. Skilifts are extremely important in Switzerland where I live - not only because of tourism, but also as often the only means of transportation in the Alps. 
My place of origin is in the Surselva valley (Canton of Graubünden, Grischun or Grisons). My interest in skilifts dates back to the ealry 1970s when I was 2 or 3 years old. I forced my parents to take pictures of any kind of skilift or take home a tbar from a junkyard. Most of my photographs are from the Sedrun (Tujetsch) Area - some of them are from the 1940s when the first rope tow was installed. 
