By Terry Ward,Features correspondent
From Norway to the Swiss Alps, the continent’s snowy winter terrain is crisscrossed with magical locales for adults and children to get their luge on.
Sleddingis the quintessential winter experience – and in Europe it is not for the faintof heart. From Norway to the Swiss Alps, the continent’s snowy winter terrainis criss-crossed with all kinds of magical locales for adults and children toget their rodel (German for “sled”) orluge (French for “sled”) on.
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Secret Swiss sledding
Bergün is an end-of-the-valley Swiss town that is home toone of Europe’s most scenic sled runs. During the winter months, the Albulamountain pass closes to car traffic and the road gets taken over by schussingwooden toboggans. Riders catch the RhätischeBahn, an alpine train, from the town’s railway station for a few Swiss francs,toboggans in tow, for the 25-minute uphill ride through a Unesco World Heritagelandscape accessed through corkscrewing tunnels and over ancient stone bridges.Fortify yourself with some gluwein (mulled wine) from the hotelrestaurant at the top of the pass before careening into the moonlit nightalong the 6.5km-long sled run back down to the village. The screams of joy –and sheer terror – echo long into the night.
A fewvalleys over in the village of Vals, its sled run is equal parts fear-inducing andexhilarating – a downhill 7km screamer that will take you about 15 minutes fromthe Restaurant Zervreila (where you can rentsleds and fuel up on fondue and mulled wine) to Vals village below. Take ashuttle bus (about 20 minutes) from the village to access the sledding route, thattraverses floodlit tunnels, hairpin turns and screech-to-a-stop straightaways.
But for the longest sled run in the Alps -- and, reputedly,the world -- head to the Jungfrau region of Switzerland and the touristy townof Grindelwald to hurl yourself 15km down the Big Pintenfritz. The run’s masstransit-style cable car access lacks the charm of smaller resorts, but this oneis all about endurance and duration.
A traditional French ride
In the village of Manigod near the excellent ski resortof La Clusaz in the French Alps, sledding’s roots run deep and practical. Sincethe early 20th Century, children here have used their special single-bladesleds, called parets, to get to schooland around town. On moonlit nights at LaFerme hotel, the owner invites guests to pull wooden parets down from thechalet’s rafters for a screaming run from the slopeside hotel into the village,less than 1km downhill. For an even wilder ride, test your sledding skills on themodern version of the paret called a yooner, which has shockabsorbers that better carve the corners in much the same way as skis. The lowerski pistes at La Clusaz are also open several nights a week during winter for dedicatedsled runs.
Das German sledding
Rodeln (sled riding), is very popular in Germany, andit is in the high peaks of the Bavarian Alps that you will find the best action.Try the sled run on Breitenstein mountain from the village of Fischbachau; whilethere is no chairlift here to whisk you to the top (you walk an hour up amountain road, dragging your sled behind you), there is a little woodenhut at the summit laced with icicles that serves cake and coffee to fortifyyou after the hike and before your descent.
For the longest natural sled run in the country,head to Wallberg mountain near the town of Rottach-Egern in the south ofBavaria, where the route stretches for just over six perfectly groomed kilometers(read: no potholes in the snow to send you blindly flying), and there is a cablecar to carry you back up to the top for continuous runs (18 euros per person).
And a good sled run for families looking for mildthrills is at Untere Firstalm, a cosy mountain hutin the Bavarian resort town of Spitzingsee, where you can tuck into an applestrudel before cruising with the kids down the tame, snowy slopes.
Extreme Austrian sled runs
The areas around the city of Innsbruck are richwith sled runs, and about 104km from the city centre in the ski village of Ischglyou can experience one of Austria’s most fun routes. Open only at night, the floodlitsled run stretches more than 6km, starting at a 2,320m elevation and droppingyou 950m at breakneck speed – not one for beginners, but a real rush. Germansand Scandinavians have long praised the resort’s upscale village vibe and snowypistes loaded with fine intermediate and expert terrain, and British andAmerican travellers are slowly catching on to Ischgl as an alternative tobetter-known (and more crowed) Austrian ski resorts like St Anton and Kitzbühel.
For the world’s longest floodlit sled run, openuntil 10 pm each night, head to Wildkogel Sledding Arena in the stateof Salzburg, where the lift sweeps you up to 1,300m to sled more than 14km backdown a white-knuckled route loaded with hairpin turns to the town of Bramberg.The best part? If all that adrenalin makes you thirsty, you can stop off at a slopesidealehouse for something cold and frosty to warm you from the inside out.
An adrenalin kick in Norway
If allof the above seem too tame, then kick your sledding experience up a notch witha bobsled run in Norway. There is plenty of old school wooden tobogganing to behad at the country’s many ski resorts, but the most extreme experience can befound in the town of Hunderfossen insouthern Norway, where bobsleds carrying up to four passengers careen at 100kphdown Europe’s only artificially frozen luge track. One glance at the terrifiedfaces exiting the sleds and you will understand why Norwegian cheeks alwayslook so rosy.
