Oehrli's first major success was winning the downhill silver medal at the European Junior Championship in 1980 . In the 1980/81 season, the trained bricklayer was used in the European Cup . He finished second in the downhill classification behind the Austrian Bernhard Flaschberger and third in the overall classification. The following winter he switched to the World Cup . He won his first World Cup points on December 21, 1981 when he was 11th on the descent from Crans-Montana .
In the 1981/82 season Oehrli achieved four places in the top ten, with a fourth place in Whistler as the best result. At the 1982 World Championships in Schladming , he finished seventh in the combination. In the two winters that followed, he did not make it into the points once. It was only in the 1985/86 season that he was able to build on his previous performance. He achieved six top 10 placements. Among them were two third places in combinations and a second place in the Morzine descent .
As a result, Oehrli only reached a rudimentary level. In 1988 he was once among the top ten, in 1989 four times. But there were no further podium places, due to the strong competition within the team, qualifications for World Championships or Olympic Games. Oehrli resigned during the 1989/90 season. Today he is co-owner of the Edelweiss Sport sports shop in Gstaad. He is also the president of the ski club in his home town of Lauenen .