The Black Horse Ski Club

John (Hon Sec) & Tracy Symons, & Iain (Hon Treas) Smith travelled ahead of the main party, arriving in St Veit on Friday afternoon. As a way of avoiding paying Ryanair's excessive add on charges, they travelled on German Wings via Cologne. However, once in the village any money saved on the airfare was soon pushed into the coffers of Helmut's steak house and the Rustica disco bar. John and Iain's task for Saturday was to gather up St Veit regulars; Mary Murphy, Alan Rogers, Dave Charnock, Peter Dennett, Peter Norris, Mike Foster, Stephanie Cousin, Charles Harrison, & Steve Chorleton and ferry them down the motorway to the village. There was just one new face in the party and that was Ian Birmingham. Everyone had arrived virtually on time, despite the heavy snow threatening the closure of Salzburg Airport around lunchtime.

It was Sylvana's birthday this coming Sunday, but she was having her celebration party at Rustica after dinner. Normally, it would be an invitation not to miss, but tiredness after a long day travelling was the reason to pass up this opportunity for a "late one". Iain S & Peter D, decided to pop in to be sociable as they are staying at Rustica. Predictably, this quick visit lasted until approx. 2.30 in the morning.

Sunday started cloudy but was expected to warm up later. It wasn't until everybody was ready to start skiing that Ian B declared that this was only his second week on skis and wouldn't be able to ski with team. With John giving a private lesson to Ian B, the remainder skied off to reacquaint themselves with the slopes in the Alpendorf/Wagrain valleys. The plan was for all to ski together, but Mike F and Stephanie went their own way, and somehow Charles managed to get detached from the main group. The dubious honour of the first crash went to Steve. Together with another couple of crashes in the afternoon, these were neither serious nor spectacular enough to win a "wipe out" award.

Siegi's famous welcome speech is always a highlight of the week in so far as his frequent use of clichＴ receives a resounding cheer and there is always a sweepstake on the length of his speech. Unfortunately, Siegi is in pain from a broken wrist and Irene gives the welcome instead. A quiet night follows with after dinner drinks in the Laterndlwirt, as the Rustica disco bar does not normally open on a Sunday.

Monday morning brings the usual chaos at Alpendorf, as the Red White Red Ski School attempt to get all the skiers allocated to an appropriate ski group for their level of ability. After bit of wrangling, John manages to persuade Gerhard to allocate ski instructor Gottfried (an old friend and BHSC member) to teach the best of the BHSC party along with four of our Danish Friends. A result of this politics is that John skis with Gottfried's group instead of teaching. While nothing untoward occurs on the slopes, there is speculation as to whether El Presidente will arrive in town early enough to hit the slopes, his flight being due at Salzburg at 11.00am. Richard has come over to Alpendorf to add more "teaching hours" to his BASSI instructors certificate.

There is strange quietness about the village due to the lack of Siegi Tours guests and also for the fact that Sven is ill and not able to conduct the evening entertainment. Therefore, there are not many willing contestants for the karaoke cup in the disco bar, just the Black Horses and their Danish friends; Michael & Majbritt, and Hans Peter and Sue. Hon Sec and Hon Treas sing their hearts out to the usual favourite tunes, but by midnight Michi has awarded the cup to Hans Peter. Whilst the sensible ones retire to bed at a reasonable hour, the hard core drinkers are reported to have remained propping up the bard until 2.30am.

Gottfried has suggested to his group that they bring forward the safari day to Tuesday as the weather forecast for later in the week is not so good. Whilst it is cold, visibility is good and the snow conditions are excellent. Also, there appears to be far fewer skiers on the slopes than at the same time in previous years. The highlight of the safari is taking the chairlift up to the highest point in Flachau. It is blowing a gale on top, freezing cold, and a good excuse for speeding all the way down to the Berghoff for a good lunch. Meanwhile back in Alpendorf John, now with his ski school jacket on and Richard assisting have been assigned to teach a group of young Danes. All appears to be going well until none of the Danes return after the mid-session drinks break. They have all skied off on their own. The upside is that John has collected all the ski school tickets and still gets paid for the whole session.

Whilst the food at the Laterndlwirt is always good, Alois will excel himself on special requests and cook pork spare ribs and dumplings. Almost as good a meal as at the steak house! With full stomachs and sticky fingers there is little enthusiasm for the scheduled curling contest. The children from the NATO school have done their curling and are heading back to their hotel before the Black Horses hit the Rustica bar for a quiet drink or two.

The forecast heavy snow has not yet arrived and Gottfried has agreed to lead another safari over to Flachau. Very unusual to do two safaris in a week, but Gottfried is happy to ski with old friends. The wind is even colder and stronger than on Tuesday causing the closure of the chair to the top peak. So, the team decide to have a rapid descent down to the bottom of the gondola at Moadorfl. Ian B gets another lesson from John and Richard has found another class to follow. Ski school ends at 3 o'clock and for those who ski down to Alpendorf, the norm is to stop half way down at the Kreistenalm for a drink. No great rush as there is a ski bus back to St Veit at 5'oclock. Cow milking is on the agenda for this evening's entertainment, but again due to the absence of Sven, there is little enthusiasm and Edelweiss sits quietly in the corner of the bar all night.

It is Thursday, and it is snowing, but not as heavy as was forecast. Despite the odd request for another safari day, Gottfried announces to his team that today will be a day of practising techniques and a little race training. Red White Red have selected the race track over at Wagrain for Friday's race rather than the long steep course on the Hirschkogel. The Wagrain course is shorter and not so steep, but can be equally tricky if not skied with care. Pre race favourite Iain is quickest down the course in around 32 seconds, which while fast enough to win gold for the group may not be fast enough to win the big cup for the fastest overall time. A couple of the Norwegian school teachers are reputed to be very good skiers. The only news from the other groups is that Charles has had a fall on the black run above the Strassalm. Whilst uninjured, he had split the crutch on his salopettes and by the time he returned to St Veit, his wedding tackle was severely chilled.

For the benefit of the school children, the Austrian Folklore evening was staged in the Metz. Thursday night is supposed to be a quiet night especially for those with serious intentions of winning medals or cups in the ski school race. Richard, who cannot race this week, takes Iain out for a few beers, visiting the U94 and Excalibur bars whilst the sensible ones retire to bed. Iain is not a well man when ne eventually crawls into bed at about 3.30am.

If it's Friday it must be race day, and unsurprisingly, Iain is decidedly feeling under the weather. The race track has been well prepared and looks in good nick. Iain and Alan recorded personal best times but could not get anywhere near a Norwegian school teacher who blitzed course in less than 28 seconds. When Peter D claimed the bronze medal, the final positions were exactly the same as Thursday's practice run except that the race times were much quicker. With the stress of racing over, the team head back to Alpendorf and the Strassalm for a special lunch of kaisersmarren. A huge fluffy pancake cooked in a gigantic frying pan and served with fruit compote and icing sugar. Friday afternoon is usually the silly season with Gottfried, with off piste, jumps, tree skiing etc a regular feature. Usually, one person suffers and on this trip it was Tracy. Not a regular faller, but a head first, off piste dive into a bank powder was worthy and amusing enough to win a wipe out of the week award.

Friday evening is a very hectic time. There is no time to stop at the Kreistenalm on the way down as the ski school presentation starts at 4 o'clock in the Oberforstoffalm. The presentation takes about an hour to award all the medals to all the various groups and to say their goodbyes to friends old and new. A taxi at 5.15pm took the team back to St Veit and straight up to Charley's to return all the hire gear, before a swift wash & change and a bit of packing before the evening celebrations. Helmut's steak house is a must for the week. A very simple menu, but such a hearty feast of salad, garlic bread, roast potatoes and roast beef. Hon Sec took the precaution of ordering taxis for the journeys to & from the Steak House so that he could enjoy the odd glass or two. As always, the Rustica disco bar is open for the farewell party. Varying amounts of alcohol loosen a few vocal chords and despite the lack of numbers, a good sing song ensues. By midnight most of the team had retired ready for the long journey home save for the diehards who prop up the bar until the early hours.

John, as usual, has efficiently organised the transport to take everybody from St Veit back to Salzburg Airport. A delay free return will cap another fine week in the Black Horse Ski Club's home resort.