The mountain spirits look at the “Gran Becca”

Time naturally plays an important role in ski racing. Only the fastest wins. Logical. It's easy. There are no annoying video referees, no replays and visual lines that can indicate possible offsides like in football. The clock is the executioner. Now also on the ascent, because in order to get to the start of the “Gran Becca” descent, the athletes have to change trains three times. In this case, time management is of great importance well before the first swing: If you arrive too late, you have to use the artificial climbing aid to float back down to the valley and then change trains five times. Of course, everyone has it under control and you can also enjoy the surroundings if you want and are able to despite the tension of the race. Above all, the view of the Matterhorn is unavoidable.

One of the highest mountains in the Alps forms the enormous framework of this new shooting trip, which is very special in certain respects. Of course, the start at 3700m at “Dos di Rollin” above Zermatt is highly unusual, even unique. The finish is at the “Laghi delle Cime Bianche” above Breuil-Cervinia. So it goes across a national border. From Switzerland to Italy. This sounds so simple, but it is a challenge of a very special, new and unusual kind. On the one hand, it has to be clarified where the prize money for the athletes is taxed. In the country of start, i.e. Switzerland, or in the country where the destination is, i.e. Italy.

Everything is arranged on the Matterhorn. © ANSA / JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT

The authorities' heads are smoking. And what do we do with the Swiss Army, which helps with route preparation? Are they also allowed to use the shovel on Italian territory? Switzerland is not in the EU. So it is a very special kind of foreign deployment for the Swiss soldiers. Now it's politicians' heads who smoke too. If we assume that these problems can be solved, nothing stands in the way of the new highlight in downhill racing. In any case, almost nothing, because there is another force that neither the Swiss nor the Italians can control: the weather. It can be assumed that South Tyrolean Markus Waldner, race director of the International Ski Federation (FIS), looks at the weather forecasts with increasing intensity every hour, because there is definitely no sunshine, like in the first training session. The exposed location of the piste is particularly susceptible to wind and can therefore have an extreme impact on the course of the race.

Hans Kammerlander as a pioneer on skis The best downhill skiers in the world are still in a comfort zone. Others started from the death zone. I'm thinking of Hans Kammerlander, for example. In 1996, the South Tyrolean climbed the northern flank of Mount Everest (8848m) on skis after a 16-hour climb to the roof of the world without oxygen. It took him six hours to travel the 4000 meters down to the base camp on the Rongbuk Glacier. With every swing, his life was at stake. On the south side, the Slovenian Davo Karnicar skied down Mont Everest four years later. And the Pole Andrzej Bargiel invested eight hours of his life to swing down from K2 (8611m), probably the most dangerous mountain in the world, on two boards to the base camp at 3600m.

Johan Eliasch pushed for the descent on the Matterhorn. © APA / EXPA/JOHANN GRODER

The new run, a prestigious project by FIS President Johan Eliasch, is by no means as dramatic or even life-threatening. Yes, actually we expected it to be more spectacular than it turned out to be in training. The great spectacle is essentially provided by nature and history. And the focus is always on the Matterhorn (4478m). It is one of the most famous mountains in the world, a landmark of Switzerland and basically the mountain that ultimately became a place of longing for many mountain lovers thanks to its dramatic first ascent. The dispute over the first ascent in July 1865 between the Englishman Edward Whymper, who climbed from Zermatt, and Jean-Antonie Carrel, the Italian who tackled the Matterhorn from Cervinia on the same day, is Alpine history.

Above all, the relegation of the Whymper team with four deaths made the dangers of the mountain world clear even back then. Whymper's jubilation literally died out in the catastrophe. The body of one of those who crashed, Lord Francis Douglas, has not yet been found. By the way, the locals had warned Whymper. At the summit, it was said, was a city in ruins, inhabited by the spirits of the damned. After the descent, the English nobleman stated that he had seen a rainbow and two huge crosses formed from clouds of mist when the ropes of four of his companions broke.

“Gran Becca” could become a classic A lot of things go through your head when you think about this “Gran Becca” descent, which actually just means “Great Peak”. In the Ski World Cup it is a piece of new territory that you are entering, a new skiing and perhaps even a rounding off and addition to the previous classics. The fact that 95 percent of the descent is normally populated by tourists, that no trees had to be felled and that, due to the large fall spaces, no safety nets are necessary and in the tree-free region it was possible to do without the iron poles that would otherwise be like ugly toothpicks towering into the sky has appeased the critics somewhat. We can only hope that the mountain spirits also give their blessing to this new spectacle. And that the weather god shows his merciful side. And most importantly, that everyone gets to the start on time.

About the author: Sigi Heinrich The award-winning sports journalist (including winner of the German Television Prize), book author and Eurosport commentator from the very beginning (since 1989) dedicates his column “Sigi's Spitze” to the entire diversity of sport. Current and profound, sometimes with a smile, serious or deliberately provocative. There should be something for everyone.

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The mountain spirits look at the “Gran Becca”

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