Part of our American mythology is that we are all, at heart, frontiersmen. We idolize the independent, isolated pioneers who entered the wilderness alone. They faced the untamed landscape with nothing more than their courage and ingenuity. And our national narrative, told through text, art, and film (and perhaps the Republican national platform), describes how they emerged victorious, or perished trying. Whenever we take a walk in the mountains, Americans rejo...

Switzerland is known for many things. For example, there are Swiss chocolate, Swiss cheese, and Swiss clocks. But Switzerland offers at least one commodity that cannot be managed by the export market: The Swiss Alps. On Sunday afternoon, via increasingly narrow-gauged railways, we made our way from Bern into the Berner Oberland. It is a region of alpine splendor dotted with small towns and minuscule villages that cater to skiers, trekkers, and glacier-gawkers ali...