Karoline Pichler is being celebrated: She won. © Christian Tschurtschenthaler

At Helmissimo: Karoline Pichler triumphs again

Fantastic slope conditions and a fantastic atmosphere characterized the 16th edition of the South Tyrol Helmissimo in the Three Peaks ski area. Athletes from 10 nations were at the starting line of the longest giant slalom in the Puster Valley. A race for the toughest of their kind, full of great emotions.

March 23, 2026

From: pm/det

The bar was set high for the 220 starters who plunged down from the Helm plateau at 2050 meters on Saturday morning: 1000 meters of vertical drop, 104 gates, and 4,5 kilometers to the finish line in Vierschach – a grueling race that, at best, ends with aches and burning thighs. And everyone had only one goal: to beat the best times of the two South Tyrolean winners from the previous year, Karoline Pichler and Aaron Hofer. No fewer than seven Helmissimo winners from the past 15 editions had returned to the scene of the action, determined to achieve great things.

Karoline Pichler, 31, from Petersberg, who made her debut in the Women's World Cup in 2012 and ended her active racing career with the Italian national team two years ago, delivered a dream run with bib number 14, taking the lead with a time of 3:30.34 minutes. It was a time that proved unbeatable. Eight-time consecutive winner Karoline Trojer from Innichen, in second place, was already more than five seconds behind. Just under three and a half seconds further back, the first Austrian, Bibiana Mattersberger, followed in third place.

Aaron Hofer (left) won in the men's competition, Karoline Pichler in the women's.

Austrian Peter Kropf (bib number 107) looked like the undisputed champion in the men's race for a long time, until Aaron Hofer from Wipptal, bib number 158, was 40 hundredths of a second faster with a time of 3:07.25. Right behind him, David Gruber from Mölltal (bib number 159) tried to snatch the victory, but missed the top step of the podium by a mere 20 hundredths of a second. Daniel Klettenhammer, the first Helmissimo winner of 2007, put in a strong performance, finishing in the unenviable fourth place, more than two seconds behind, closely followed by Matthias Oberhammer (3:10.02).

Austrians win team classification

The team classification was won by the Austrians with Team Gölbnerblick (David Gruber, Peter Kropf, Daniel Klettenhammer, Robert Gasser, Giusy Rottonara), right behind them the Team 3 Zinnen with Karoline Trojer, Matthias Oberhammer, Manuel Summerer, Hannah Feichter and Norbert Pfeifhofer and in 3rd place the team from Holzbau Duregger with Bibiana Mattersberger, Markus Duregger, Hannes Schmidhofer, Philipp Steiner and Arthur Bürgler.

The awards ceremony was entirely in keeping with the Olympic motto, "Taking part is everything." The ten-member Ukrainian delegation, including Vancouver and Sochi Winter Olympian Bogdana Matsotska, made an emotional appearance. And the organizers also received their due at the end of the day: the Helm-Vierschach amateur sports club and its approximately 130 volunteers were rewarded with enthusiastic applause.