Adelboden is in the western part of the Bernese Oberland, in its heartland of agriculture and cheesemaking. With neither altitude nor dramatic peaks in its favour, it is surprising that the village was chosen for the first ‘package’ ski holidays in the early 1900s. In both winter and summer, Adelboden offers some of the most peaceful and unspoilt aspects of the Bernese Oberland.

Under many feet of snow, the Speicher (hay barns), lend a sense of proportion and descending viewpoint to this wide and beautiful composition. Looking south along the Engstligen valley, beside its eponymous thawing river, Contencin depicts the 2,458 -metre Fitzer peak to the right and the plateau-like Wildstrubel in the distance.