On hot runners

Tobogganing is a popular sport in Bavaria. Kids hurtle down the village slopes. Grown men vie for glory on giant horn sleds. Long tobogganing runs offer several minutes of downhill fun – and in the Rhön there are even two people that make the classic Davos sledges entirely by hand. Andreas Weber and Alexander Hergenhan.

Clouds of smoke rise up out of a chimney on the edge of Leubach in the Rhön. They come from a cast-iron stove which heats a workshop that at first glance doesn’t look like anything special. After their day’s work is done, Andreas Weber and Alexander Hergenhan ply an unusual craft here: They build traditional sledges known as Davos sledges. “These are sledges with crescent-shaped runners, which have slats attached to their top ends”, explains Alexander Hergenhan. The 31-year-old is a master joiner and the great-grandson of the founder of “Weber-Schlitten“. He has been involved in the manufacture since 2013. Together with his uncle, Andreas Weber, who has been building Davos sledges as a sideline since 1980, in recent years he has breathed fresh life into the workshop, set up in 1924.

“They used to make the sledges out of beech but nowadays we use native ash”, says master joiner Weber. Why? Ash has longer fibres and therefore lasts longer than beech. Each sledge represents three hours’ work, but it takes over three months from start to finish. “We start by boiling up the wood for the runners in a large cauldron to make it pliable”, says Andreas Weber, explaining a key stage in the process. We then use a bending machine to get it into the correct shape. After two or three months of drying time, both men mount the stands on the runners then add the seating slats.

The Davos sledge is a genuine classic on Bavaria’s toboggan runs, such as the one from Wallberg down to the town of Tegernsee. It is one of the most beautiful runs in the country. You slide through a snow-covered winter landscape for half an hour, breathe in the fresh air and enjoy the speed of the runners. Winter can be so beautiful.

 

Tobogganing can also be enjoyed to the full in the rest of Bavaria. The highest run is on the Zugspitze, the Allgäu has descents of up to 6.5 kilometres and on the Ochsenkopf/Fichtel Mountains there are six runs ready for the thrill of the downhill. It sounds very sporty, but tobogganing is a relaxed affair in Bavaria. A typical Bavarian tobogganing excursion usually includes a welcome break in a mountain hut or inn with friends and family. In Bavaria, tobogganing is a community experience – and makes you seriously hungry.

Unlike today, sledges in the Rhön were not always used for sport and fun: They were used in winter to reach other towns or villages as fast as possible, for shopping and transport. The growing leisure industry in the 1970s represented a golden age for the Weber family business. They produced up to 6000 sledges each year and exported whole truckloads of them to Great Britain. However, the increasing use of plastic soon put a stop to this success.

“Today, I’m glad to say, people are starting to appreciate hand-crafted quality products once more”, says Alexander Hergenhan.

And as long as you don’t run your Leubach Davos sledge “at full pelt into a wall”, it will easily last for three generations, adds his uncle. “It’s all a question of driving skill.”

If you want to work on your tobogganing skills, Oberaudorf offers the perfect opportunity. Courses here teach you how to steer a sledge elegantly round a corner. And when you get to the bottom, with red cheeks and the thrill of having completed a successful downhill run, there’s only one thing you want to do: Go back to the top and do it again.