The Magic Mountain — WEF, skiing above tree line, Thomas Mann
Davos is the highest town in the Alps (1,560m) — a contradiction wrapped in snow: simultaneously the world's most powerful economic forum and one of its best ski resorts. The World Economic Forum meets here every January, transforming it into a temporary world capital. The rest of the year it's a serious skier's paradise — 300km of pistes across Parsenn, Jakobshorn, Pischa, Rinerhorn, and Madrisa, with skiing above tree line and the famous Parsenn run descending nearly 2,000m to Klosters. Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain is set in a Davos tuberculosis sanatorium.
Davos was 'discovered' by Dutch physician Willem Jan Holsboer in 1867, who recommended its dry, cold mountain air for tuberculosis patients. The town became a world-renowned sanatorium destination — by 1900 it had 50 hotels and 40 sanitoria, drawing Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle (who introduced skiing there), and Thomas Mann, who wrote The Magic Mountain after visiting his tubercular wife. The WEF was founded here in 1971 by Klaus Schwab.