NO.120
T H E T R U S T Y S E RVA N T
Run was rebuilt from
scratch. The infamous
corners of Battledore and
Shuttlecock were added
lower down to encourage
more skilled riding and to
provide added interest for
the spectators.
In order to finance the
annual building and
maintenance costs, a club
was formed in November
1887 – the St. Moritz
Tobogganing
Club. Bulpett
Capt. W.H. Bulpett (rt.) constructing the bank of Battledore c.1894
was elected unanimously as
Photo by Capt. Bligh – SMTC Archive London
its first president, a post he
held until 1919. He stood down for
post-road to Klosters, and the British
military duties during the Boer War and
visitors in St. Moritz were keen to
the club was disbanded for the duration of
establish a race of their own.
the Great War.
Bulpett and his four colleagues,
Bulpett’s other contributions
assisted by workmen provided by the local
included
the development of the modern
hotelier Peter Badrutt of the
steel
toboggan,
known as the ‘skeleton’.
Engadinerkulm, had fashioned a track
After
the
1887
Grand
National, in which
down a steep narrow valley from St.
another
Australian
had
tried to ride the
Moritz Dorf, joining a footpath that
Cresta
Run
head-first
with
mixed results,
ended up below, by the village of Cresta.
the
traditional
Swiss
toboggan
was soon
Navigating the ‘Upper Banks’ was
replaced
by
a
low-slung
Boston
coaster,
particularly hazardous, as, at Bulpett’s
the
wooden-sided
‘America’.
Bulpett
had
suggestion, they were covered with water
the
idea
of
dispensing
with
the
wooden
to allow the night frost to transform the
sides and creating a steel-framed machine,
surface into solid ice; otherwise, the
with
a padded wooded platform to lie on.
runners of the wooden luges, known as
Narrow
‘knives’ were added at the rear of
Swiss Schlittli, carved ruts into the soft
the
runners,
to allow better steerage when
snow. The first contest on what was to
the
rider’s
weight
was moved back.
become known as the Cresta Run – the
Combined
with
metal
rakes on his boots,
Grand National – was held on February
the
Cresta
rider
could
now
take the iced
16th, 1885. Although the St. Moritzers
banks
with
speed
and
control,
moving his
had had the benefit of practice on their
weight
forward
when
on
the
straights.
home run, a degree of over-confidence led
Throughout the 1890s, the velocity of the
to their downfall. One of their number,
riders rose to speeds in excess of 70mph,
Charles Metcalfe, an Old Harrovian, was
making them among the fastest men and
knocked unconscious and spent three
women on the [