There are certain days when skiing in Aspen when things just line up. The snow is cold and untouched. There are frozen crystals clinging to the aspen trees. Liftlines are short. Panoramic views are endless. You’ll hear hoots and hollers as you ride the chairlift, skiers and snowboarders can’t contain themselves because skiing on those days is just too good. Before rockered skis and Gore-Tex, Europeans had their own way of honoring the beauty of these epic days in the mountains: they’d yodel!
“There were no words in our vocabulary that would have been able to describe the unbelievable beauty of the mountains in winter,” says Klaus Obermeyer. “We’d yodel because we couldn’t express the beauty in our vocabulary."
After 75 years running Sport Obermeyer, Klaus won’t shy away from yodeling into the cosmos when he’s stirred by the beauty and joy of his surroundings. But, do you know where yodeling comes from?
“There were no words in our vocabulary that would have been able to describe the unbelievable beauty of the mountains in winter,” says Klaus Obermeyer. “We’d yodel because we couldn’t express the beauty in our vocabulary. That’s how yodeling got started. Then, they realized that a calling out into the mountains carries. So, the Swiss would yodel to each other from one mountain top to another. Their calls would carry to the other side of the valley. It was a way of communicating.”
Historically, yodeling was a celebration in Bavarian, Swiss, and Austrian mountain towns—like strudel and schnapps, apres-ski and dancing. Yodeling is an expression of joy, a communication of gratitude, an homage to beauty, and an honoring of nature. If you’re lucky enough to Klaus yodeling from the chairlift, you’ll hear his elation. That’s what it’s all about, right?