Paul Dale enjoys a week on the slopes of an idyllic Swiss resort with a historic upper crust heritage.

Skiing is one of the last recreations anywhere in the world that continues to provide a safe haven for the Great British Eccentric, no more so than in Switzerland the spiritual home of middle class winter sports enthusiasts.

And like anglers, skiers are great ones for tall stories.

We were in the tiny rack and pinion train inching its way up to Wengen from the Lauterbrunnen valley – a journey of just 14 minutes, but a rise of about 3,500 feet – when the talk turned to speculation about the likely conditions on the slopes given the absence of any fresh snow for two weeks.

A man, who it would be generous to describe as portly and late middle age, piped up: “Ah, this is nothing. I’ve been coming here every year for 45 years and I remember when there was no snow at all. They put down iced straw to ski on.”

We chuckled politely at this.

The intrepid skier, getting into the swing of things, continued: “Another time, it snowed night and day for an entire week. We had three metres of snow, never got out of the hotel once.”

Ah, those were the days. And Wengen still retains a feel of the Home Counties at play. Cut-glass, confident, braying accents rip across the pistes as in: “Jane, Jaaaaane, Toby and I are going to have a snifter and a spot of lunch in the little hut at the bottom of the first run. Care to join us?”

Right ho, Jeeves. And I swear I am not making this up, but at the first hotel I stayed in during my week in Wengen, the four-star Silberhorn, there was an elderly British skier reading The Times, sipping a dry sherry and wearing a monocle.

Disappointingly, when spotted on the slopes the next day, goggles had replaced the single eye piece, although a garish turquoise and purple ski suit was suggestive of kit bought from C&A in the 1970s and treasured lovingly ever since.

Let’s get one thing straight, though. Wengen, for all of its chocolate box reputation, is a place for serious skiers and for those who admire Alpine scenery in its most spectacular form.

The view of the north face of the Eiger, which dominates Wengen’s main pistes, is quite extraordinary. It is also necessary to hit on the head the false rumours that 2011 has been hit by a lack of the white stuff.

I can only speak for Wengen, but thanks to extensive investment in snow-making equipment the pistes were in good condition throughout a week in which the sun shone brilliantly every day.

Even if an absence of the real stuff continues, Wengen has enough snow stockpiled in special “reservoirs” to guarantee top class skiing. The perception in England that Wengen, a relatively low-lying resort, is a place to avoid when natural snow is in short supply is no longer true, if indeed it ever was.

It’s a great place for long blue and relatively easy red runs, with some tricky blacks to keep even the experts on their toes. Along with the adjoining resorts of Murren and Grindlewald, this is where downhill skiing was invented by the Brits at the end of the 19th century thanks to the arrival of a steam railway taking passengers up to the Kleine Scheidegg ski area at 6,000 feet.

By 1903 Wengen had an Anglican Church and two years later, Sir Henry Lunn formed the Public Schools Alpine Sports Club with Wengen as a destination ski area for the members.

Members of the Public Schools Alpine Sports Club were required to have attended an English public school or one of the “older universities”, and to follow a tradition of dressing for dinner. It is no longer necessary to have attended public school, although dressing for dinner is of course optional.

Lunn encouraged downhill racing at Wengen, and today the resort is famous for the annual Lauberhorn race at the beginning of January, the longest and one of the toughest on the professional grand prix circuit.

The village is tiny, little more than one main street with a few shops and bars, with large exclusive hotels and chalets spreading up towards the foothills of the mountains. It is one of very few car-free villages in Europe, although there are a few electric vehicles for taking guests to and from the railway station.