SKI LODGE BULLETIN

them. Don’t be scared to go big! It’s
easier, I promise.
What’s the most common repair
you do?
The big service. Ha ha. People who
have their own skis are kind of bad
at taking care of them. It’s a shame,
cause skis perform so much better
if they’re in good shape. You can
really see that a ski with proper
edges and good glide turns much
better. Give your skis some love.
It’s a win win.
What’s the trend?
Both powder skis and all mountain
skis are getting wider. The
last year’s development in touring
equipment is also a real revolution,
and has helped more people
discover how easy it is to get off
the beaten track. Nowadays the
touring bindings and boots are so
good, it’s not really any difference
between them and normal bindings
and boots. This helps people
tour more – like small hikes just off
the lift. Safety equipment also becomes
more and more important,
as more people are moving out of
the slopes.
What kind of safety equipment?
Avalanche backpacks have gotten
really popular the last years.
There’s a discussion about people
taking more risks because they
have more safety equipment.
And that’s of course something to
think about – transceivers and avalanche
backpacks can save your
life, but you must remember not to
take more risks cause you’re wearing
them. It’s like driving a car;
you can’t drive like an idiot just
because you wear the seat belt.
The airbag backpacks
also got a lot cheaper and better
the last years. Now they’re just
like a normal ski pack, but with a
small life insurance in it. If you’re
a freerider, I think it makes sense
to add one to the mandatory
“transceiver-shovel-probe”-setup
you always bring.
Talking about touring again.
What’s your favourite small tour
on the mountain?
It may be a boring answer, but the
Wendelücke is so easy accessed,
and it’s such a nice one-hour-tour.
Just make sure you know where
to go down if you don’t have a
guide. Engelberg is a place where
you can’t always follow tracks, and
in Wendelücke you can’t see the
whole run from the top.
What’s your favourite lift accessed
run?
Well. It’s Laub. Of course. Ha ha!
And at last; I need to ask you
about the ski ballet?
Ha ha ha! Ski ballet? Where have
you heard this?! But you know, in
the eighties, if you could be John
Travolta on 140 centimetre skis to
the tunes of classic rock, wearing
a yellow one-piece – you were the
man! It was not really my favourite
though, and since aerials also were
a part of the “ski acrobatique”, I
spent more time doing that.
But really, I think it was all
the same back then as it is now.
Today it’s called freeskiing,
25 years ago it was ski acrobatique.
They’re both something
different though, and that’s what
I love about this part of the ski
world that I’m living in.
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