Stories

Brigitte Stalder-Matter is Managing Director of the Engelberg-Fürenalp aerial cableway. She has been associated with Fürenalp since her childhood and supports the family-run business. Together with her team, she is committed to ensuring the safety of cable car operations. The unique natural surroundings serve as inspiration for a wide range of summer and winter activities and an authentic gastronomy. She is the mother of two children and can regularly be found in the mountains or on the Wingfoil in her free time.

Sina Filliger - together with her husband Roger - is at the heart of the Hotel Bellevue-Terminus in Engelberg. In addition to her role in marketing, she plays a key role in shaping the unique individuality of the hotel. With her eye for detail, she makes the interior design shine and gives the hotel its very special vibe. In this way, she makes a decisive contribution to an important unique selling point of the Bellevue Terminus. But her flair for aesthetics is not only evident here - she also brings her creative signature to other projects, such as the annual Food Unplugged, where she is the creative driving force behind the decoration.

Mary Birkeland comes from Sauda in Norway and has lived in Engelberg for many years. Skiing has been one of her passions since she was a child. She enjoys freeskiing and has already taken part in competitions. Mary Birkeland now works at Titlis and is part of the Ski Patrol team, which ensures safety on the slopes, particularly in avalanche prevention.

Sanne Mona is a Swedish freeride skier and Marketing Manager at Ski Lodge Engelberg. She is originally from Åre, Sweden, and has lived in Engelberg for around ten years. In her youth, she was active in mogul skiing and took part in international competitions. She now focuses on freeride skiing in Engelberg-Titlis, where she survived a serious avalanche accident a few years ago. In addition to her work at the ski lodge, she takes part in freeride competitions and shares her life and experiences on Instagram under @sannemona. She is the owner of dog ‘Janne’.

Short documentary about Sanne: https://www.engelberg.ch/en/mountain-of-angels/

Monika Notz comes from Engelberg and grew up here. She has been running the goldsmith's workshop ‘Monis Wirkstatt’ at Dorfstrasse 19 in Engelberg since 2002. In her workshop, she creates individual pieces of jewellery according to her customers' ideas.

In addition to her work as a goldsmith, Monika Notz is also involved as President of the Engelberg Trade Association. She is also responsible for organising the seasonal markets in Engelberg and is a member of the ‘Attractiveness of the Dorkern’ committee.

Monika Notz is the mother of two sons with whom she enjoys spending time on her bike. Her other passions include cooking, handicrafts, sewing and music.

Sophia Wetterblad is the treasurer of the Engelberg Trade Association and runs Roastery Engelberg together with her brother. She studied Public Health Sciences at the University of Gothenburg and Health Sciences at the University of Lucerne.

Originally from Sweden, she came to Engelberg for love and stayed. She now lives in Oberrickenbach with her husband and three young children.

Beatrice Bissig-Odermatt is a herb farmer, medicinal plant specialist and ethnobotanist from Grafenort in the Engelberg Valley. On the Neufallenbach farm, which she runs together with her family and her team, she has created a unique botanical medicinal plant garden over the last 25 years. Over 300 herbs thrive here, which are processed into valuable plant treasures in her farm's own manufactory.

She is co-founder of the Competence Center for Healing Culture in the Alps and initiator of the Herbal Festival in the Engelberg Valley, which attracts thousands of nature and health enthusiasts to the valley every year. She also offers courses and seminars and works as a speaker and author.

Her products, including alpine herbal teas, syrups and smoked herbs, are available directly from the farm, in the online store and in select specialist shops and restaurants in the Engelberg Valley and Engelberg.

www.hof-neufallenbach.ch
www.heilkultur-alpenraum.com

Ingeborg Veelenturf founded the coworking space “Mountain Coworking Rocks” in Engelberg. She also regularly organizes “Inspirational Talks” there and uses them to network people. Ingeborg is committed to diversity and sustainability in the supply chain industry and has participated in discussions on gender diversity at Alcott Global, where she is also a member of the advisory board of the Supply Chain Asia Community. In Engelberg, she is involved in the Sustainability Group Engelberg.
Ingeborg Veelenturf is an experienced professional in the field of international supply chain logistics with over 20 years of professional experience in Europe and Asia. She has worked in leading international consumer goods companies such as Kellogg, Sara Lee and BAT. At Sara Lee she was involved in international supply chain management and working with retailers. She subsequently held senior positions at Kellogg in Dublin, Hong Kong, Singapore and China. At BTA, she served as Regional Head of Logistics for Asia Pacific. Since August 2016, she has been Senior Director Logistics Asia at Tapestry (formerly Coach Inc.).

Ruth Arnold lives in Engelberg and runs the Stäfeli Alpine cheese dairy together with her husband Stefan. There they look after around 20 cows, 20 goats, 100 sheep and 20 pigs. They produce various cheese specialities from the milk obtained, including the special Alpgeiss cheese. The alpine cheese dairy is located at around 1,400 metres above sea level and is a popular destination for hikers.

Michelle Gisin grew up in Engelberg in a family of skiers. Her siblings Dominique and Marc Gisin are also among the important ski players here in Switzerland. From an early age, she spent time with her siblings on the ski slopes of Engelberg and discovered her passion for skiing. At the age of 15, she transferred from the Gymnasium of the Stiftsschule Engelberg to the Sportmittelschule and skied her first FIS races. After graduating from the Engelberg Sports Secondary School in June 2012, she decided to turn her great passion into her profession. From then on, Michelle was able to celebrate countless successes and shows her skills year after year.

Michelle Gisin has been the official brand ambassador of the Engelberg-Titlis region since 2021. Click here for the media release >>
She is also hosting the podcast "Heb de Schlitte" since 2024.

Achievements:

Two-time Olympic champion in Alpine Combined, PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022
Bronze medal super-G, Olympic Games Beijing 2022
Alpine Combined World Championship runner-up, St. Moritz 2017
Bronze medal Alpine Combined, World Championships Cortina d'Ampezzo 2021

17 podium places, including one victory (SL) in all disciplines in the FIS World Cup
81 top ten rankings in the FIS World Cup in all disciplines
Overall and Slalom European Cup winner 2013/14 season
Vice Junior World Champion Slalom, Québec February 2013

Dominique Sabine Gisin is a former Swiss ski racer and lives in Engelberg. Her younger brother Marc and her younger sister Michelle also competed in ski racing - Michelle is currently still active in the World Cup. Dominique specializes in the downhill, super-G and giant slalom disciplines. Her greatest success was winning the gold medal in the downhill at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The Gisin family is considered the most successful skiing family in the world.

Dominique's school career took her to the Stiftsschule Engelberg, where she completed her Matura. In summer 2018, she obtained her Bachelor's degree in physics at ETH Zurich, followed by a Master of Science in physics in 2022. In addition to her academic career, she is also involved in sport: she has been a delegate on the Board of Trustees of the Swiss Sports Aid Foundation since 2019 and was elected to the Board of Directors of Bergbahnen Engelberg-Trübsee-Titlis in 2018. In the 2017/18 season, she also worked as a co-commentator for Swiss television.

Lena Häcki from Engelberg is a Swiss biathlete. She attended the Sportmittelfachschule in Engelberg and successfully completed her Matura in 2014. She won several World Cup medals as a junior and made her debut in the Biathlon World Cup in 2014, where she is one of the leading athletes on her team. From 2018, she stood on the podium several times in relay races, and in December 2019 she managed to do so for the first time in an individual competition. In the winter of 2023/24, she celebrated her first World Cup victories in the short singles in Antholz and the mass start in Oslo.

Nina Christen from Wolfenschiessen is a successful Swiss sports shooter. She practices the two rifle disciplines of small bore and air rifle shooting.

Nina Christen comes from a shooting family and grew up in Wolfenschiessen. She has been shooting since 2006 and competing since 2011. After graduating from high school in 2014 and completing her top sports R.S., she was employed by the Swiss Army as a temporary military officer. In March 2019, Christen celebrated her first World Cup victory. As a member of the army, she also took part in the 2019 World Military Games in Wuhan. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, which will be held in the summer of 2021, she advanced from 7th to 3rd place in the 10m air rifle shooting final, winning the first medal for the Swiss delegation in the first decision of these Games. A week later, she won the gold medal in the small-bore three-position event with a new Olympic record.

Erika Hess is a former Swiss ski racer and comes from the Engelberg Valley below Engelberg.

In the 1980s, the versatile skier dominated women's alpine skiing. She won the overall World Cup in 1982 and 1984 and won a total of 31 times in World Cup races. She also won the discipline World Cup in the slalom from 1981 to 1983 as well as in 1985, and furthermore the World Cup in the giant slalom and in the Alpine combined in 1984.

Sälmi Töngi is something of a star among the Engelberg alpine cheesemakers. There is hardly a Swiss magazine or television station that has not reported on the "gmögigen" cheese maker. There is a good reason for this: Sälmi's Alp Sbrinz AOP, which is more enjoyable than the one from the valley thanks to the variety of herbs in the alpine milk, keeps winning awards and is therefore even more famous than he is. For more than 40 years, Sälmi has been processing 300,000 kilos of cow's milk and 30,000 kilos of goat's milk from farmers in the surrounding alps into alpine cheese summer after summer on the Gerschnialp. The alp, idyllically situated below the Titlis at 1300 metres above sea level, can be easily reached on foot along a beautiful forest path or by taking the nostalgic funicular railway from Engelberg.

To his alps >>

Abbot Chrstian Meyer was elected as the new abbot of Engelberg Monastery in 2010 by the then parish priest Christan. 

Since its foundation in 1120, the Benedictine monastery of Engelberg has shaped the history of the high valley. The monks' current activities largely grew out of the needs of the village. Pastoral care in the parish, educational work at the monastery school, handicraft and service businesses as well as the "Kloster Schreinerei" (monastery carpentry), which mainly works externally, and cultural and landscape conservation are areas in which the monks as well as the increasing number of secular employees of the monastery are involved. Since the beginnings of the monastery, the monks have been teaching young people. Today, the monastery school consists of a grammar school (bilingual Matura D/E) with International Baccalaureate (IB) and a boarding school for boys and girls. The boarding school also accepts pupils who attend the secondary school (IOS) run by the Engelberg local authority and housed on the monastery premises. The Benedictines of Engelberg founded two monasteries in North America: "Conception" in Missouri in 1873 and "Mount Angel" in Oregon in 1882. In 1932, the monastery took on missionary tasks in Cameroon and founded the monastery "Mont Febe" in the capital Yaoundé there in 1964. The monastic community of 21 monks in Engelberg has been led by Abbot Christian Meyer since 2010. The Benedictine Monastery of Engelberg is the second largest employer in Engelberg after Bergbahnen EngelbergTrübsee-Titlis AG. In 2020, the Benedictine Monastery of Engelberg will be able to look back on 900 years of beneficial activity. 

To the monastery Engelberg >>

Florentin Spichtig produces alp cheese, mutschli, alp butter, yoghurt and cream from the approximately 180,000 litres of milk in the Surener alp cheese dairy, which will be rebuilt in 2019. The Surenen alpine cheese dairy at the foot of the pass of the same name is located at the very back of the Engelberg valley - but it belongs to the canton of Uri. However, being at the back of the valley does not mean that the alp is only accessible via a single path.

To the Alp Surenen >>

Albin Amstutz completed an apprenticeship as a truck mechanic in 1986-90. Later he worked for the company Menia AG (today Bürgi AG). When the company had no more work for him as an operational mechanic in winter, he saw this as an opportunity. He reoriented himself and became a qualified ski instructor. It was the beginning of his new professional career. He trained further to become a bungee master, a telemark instructor and also passed the canyoning guide training in 1998. From 1997 to 1999, he completed the training to become a certified mountain guide. 

The via ferratas were built under his direction; he received the order from the mountain railways, the municipality of Engelberg and Engelberg-Titlis Tourism. Of course, he did it together with his fellow mountaineers. They welded most of the material, such as the steel stirrups, themselves.

Dani Perret is co-editor of the three inspiring Outdoor Guides and recently also of the Hike and Fly Guide Central Switzerland. Whether mountaineering, sport climbing, freeriding or a combination of all of these combined with a flight: Dani knows where to find the best conditions. Not only has he brought the legendary pre-season camps to life. When it's lockdown again, he cleans a big rock together with the fire brigade and friends and sets up a family-friendly climbing garden on it.

Christoph Bissig is a luminary on the mountain and has been able to acquire a lot of knowledge about the snow and its dangers, the geographical conditions as well as the local peculiarities in his 30 years of service. He knows the mountain TITLIS like no other and he lives for the mountain.

Here you can learn more about Christoph Bissig and his mountain >>