This Swiss region honors its heritage with a witch's ski race
The annual Alpine event pays homage to a local legend about a sorceress and her hapless husband.
The legend goes like this: in the 15th century, a witch lived in the Valais region of Switzerland, and was unhappily married to a local farmer named Sepp vom Hegdorn. She was reclusive and mean, with a loud piercing laugh, and rumors swirled among the villagers that she possessed supernatural powers. At night, they said, she transformed into a raven to visit her lover in a nearby town. By contrast, vom Hegdorn was sweet and unassuming, and ignored the villagers who said his wife was a witch. He enjoyed raising his sheep and goats and drinking cherry brandy.
But when he was found dead after falling from a cherry tree, villagers accused his wife of killing him. She had transformed into a raven, they said, and pooped into his eye, blinding him and causing him to fall from the tree. Vom Hegdorn’s wife was charged with murder and “raven flight,” and burned at the stake.
Over the next few centuries, the legend of the unnamed sorceress spread across the Swiss canton, and in 1983, the Belalp Ski Club decided to create a downhill event to pay homage to vom Hegdorn and his story. Christened the Belalp Hexe, the nickname by which the witch was known, skiers from all over the Valais were invited to participate in a downhill race called “the Witch’s descent:” racers zip down a 12-kilometer course from Hohstock to Blatten, while amateur participants take it at their own pace. Dressed as witches with green faces, pointy hats and brooms, they stop along the way to sip on cherry schnapps—vom Hegdorn’s favorite drink—and eventually cross the finish line.
As they descend the slope, a panel of judges votes on which group of witches deserve to win the award for best costume. The racers who place win a coveted prize: witch masks. (This year’s winners, Mathias Reber and Nicole Eiholzer, completed the race in 2 minutes and 21 seconds and 2 minutes and 39 seconds, respectively.)
“The combination of the sporting challenge and the convivial atmosphere makes the Belalp Hexe a truly unique event,” Gerold Berchtold, the chairman of the Belalp Hexe organizing committee, said in an interview. Berchtold comes from a long line of alpine skiers: his great-grandparents and grandparents on both sides of his family were mountain guides. “We grew up in the mountains at 2,000 meters above sea level,” he said. “As a child, you spend your free time skiing in the mountains. Skiing is practically in our DNA.”
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Now, as chairman, Berchtold is responsible for planning the week-long event, which includes a “Witch’s Night,” where participants can gather to listen to live music, drink and socialize, and a “Mini-Maxi” race, in which kids can participate. Families and participants can gather at the fondue chalet after spending a day on the slopes to partake in some delicious traditional fare.
Eva Zinger has been attending the Hexe with a group of girlfriends since 2014, when she and her friends happened to be in Belalp during the same weekend as the Hexe. “We thought it looked like a lot of fun, so we decided to create a witch group, which we called The Swedish Vikings, and joined the Hexe one year later,” Zinger, who is 60 and lives in Zurich, said. She and her friends participated in this year’s event “but we didn’t get all the way to the goal—too much fun happening on the way,” she admitted.
According to Lara Andereggen, Belalp’s head of marketing, more than 1,000 people—500 racers and 500 witches—participated in this year’s Witch’s Descent, the 44th, which took place on Saturday.
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“Originally, the Hexe downhill race was organized to fill the January low season and to attract both tourists and locals to the region,” Andereggen said in an interview. “But what began as a sporting competition has today become a traditional winter event that uniquely combines sport, folklore, and social gathering.”
This year, the Belalp Hexe also featured the first vertical race, in which athletes could choose whether to trek by foot, snowshoe or touring skis from Blatten to Schönbiel, covering more than 1,000 meters of elevation gain. The winner, 42-year-old Martin Anthamatten from Zermatt, completed the race in 34 minutes.
Though the event is inspired by the legend of the Belalp Hexe, there have been no supernatural sightings at the event, at least not officially.
“The mystical witch theme is an integral part of the Belalp Hexe’s staging and creates a very special atmosphere, but there have been no real ghost stories or supernatural occurrences,” Andereggen said. “Rather, it is the imaginative costumes, performances, and overall ambiance that give the event its ‘magical’ character.”
