A Flachau Summary and a Look at Wengen

Looking back at Flachau and a little window into the famous Lauberhornrennen.
I had a lot of fun watching the Flachau slalom on TV; especially considering the lack of perspective that TV gave the hill. It is a solid hill. It has excellent pitch and is very consistent in the middle. There are some short flat sections that precede rolls. It just seemed more flat and less fun on TV. I always thought of it as a very fun hill with a lot of cool terrain to work with. So I think there were some “mysterious” losses of time that were not easily explained by the coverage.
For one, the entire middle section of pitch is a right foot fall-away and a pretty strong one. The dead give-away on that is that there are 2, count ‘em 2, big right-foot delays that cross the hill pretty hard on the second run. A good sign that the course-setter is feeling “pulled’ right the whole way. It is something that was not commented on or very noticeable on video. This type of hill will obviously favor some women who are stronger with their right side, etc.
From watching that race, there were some things that were pretty obvious to me.
1. Marlies Schild is the best women’s slalom skier in the world. She gets to the new ski very early and is solid in the core. This is not only fast, but consistent. And let’s face it; skiing consistently fast is the goal.
2. Tanja Poutiainen is very solid and goes to the new ski well. But she struggles with combinations, especially hairpins and often exits late.
3. Susanne Riesch should have won. She will be a force in slalom in the future. The best thing to see was that she was in heated discussion (or upset) in talking with her coach Christian Schwaiger after the race. I am sure he was consoling her but then teaching her. Learning to win with a lead is very difficult. But it is also a necessity at all levels of FIS racing these days with the flip 30. It is a tough deal and puts on a lot of pressure. Learning to deal with it and ski your own race is tough and takes time.
4. Her sister Maria did a great job and I hope Lindsey can bounce back to get the overall lead back to wear it was. That was a huge hit to Lindsey and I hope she does not have to rely on speed wins only the rest of the season.
5. Schlep is solid now and needs to go a step up in intensity and focus. She knows she needs the early pressure to the new ski but she needs to use it to get in tighter on the pole and exit even earlier and higher on the hill to be able to roll the ski in cleanly. She definitely needs to recognize and execute hairpins better.
6. The rest of our slalom team needs to step it up. We can support them emotionally, but they need to find a way to get on the board too.
7. I will say it one more time. The French girls are scoring and moving up in slalom. Another solid result in slalom from Noens, Worley, Dautherives and Marmottan. Pretty soon, they will all be in the top 30 in slalom and what happens then?
8. The German girls are good at slalom. Aside from the Riesch family, Fanny Chmelar had a great weekend as did Duerr and Geiger. They are on a roll.
9. All 3 Loeseth (NOR) sisters scored points this week.
10. Aside from Brigitte Acton, the Canadians have nothing going on…I do have something to say about the decimation of the team through injury and it will be said at some point. I have to give credit to the men’s slalom team for hanging in there and the women’s DH team to some extent.
WENGEN COMING UP!
We have one of the coolest downhills in the world coming up in one of the most beautiful mountain towns on the planet. For those of you who have not been there, you drive up the valley toward Lauterbrunnen from Interlaken and come to the train station. Unload all your stuff, put it on the train (park your car and get a ticket somewhere in there) and jump on board. The train climbs for a while. Maybe 1000 meters? And drops you in the village of Wengen. There are no cars, only those that are owned by hotels as shuttles and certain service providers, etc. throughout the village. So for the American boys, we call the Park Hotel and they send 2 electric carts down to get us and all of our stuff. A few laps later we are all moved in to the ski room and the hotel. The ski room is under the gondola building and the hotel up on the high end of town. So it kind of feels like the whole town is yours.
There is so much to talk about in Wengen; I can only hope to get a portion of it across in the blog. To step back a little, on the way to the hotel on the one main street, we pass the town square on the right with the stage set-up for awards and draw and bands. Beer stands all around. Behind there is the ice rink, where we spent almost every evening last winter skating around or playing hockey. Between the hotel and the rink is a beginner’s slope that any ski area in the world would dream of having. It is hugely wide with a ton of different minor pitches, right in the middle of town. There are shops and restaurants and bars. The place goes off all night on race weekend, another insane stop on tour.
So at 7 AM you board the train to get pulled all the way up to the Kleine Scheidegg and then jump on the chair to the Lauberhorn start. When you get up there you can see it all. The Jungfrau, The Monch and The Eiger are most prominent and near the ski area. If you look down the opposing valley to Wengen you look into Grindelwald. All attached by lifts. Across the other valley from Wengen is Muerren, an epic ski area and original World Cup stop in its own right. As well, the jet show by the Swiss Air Force just before the race is amazing.
To me, the coolest thing about the Lauberhornrennen is the pure length and variety of it. It is a sneaky hill. You break out of the start and head down a pitch and a series of seemingly endless sweeping high-speed turns with jumps. It goes on forever as such and most of you all will never see it on TV, usually only from a helicopter after a break in the action. But the end of that long series of turns ends in possibly the most famous jump on the World Cup, the Hundschopf. After completing a 180 degree turn to the right, you get on the right foot and jump through a hole in the rock with A- Net hanging out over your head. As a matter of fact, you aim for the end of the net for the jump. You fly under the net, land and find the right foot to move left through the Minshkante and then into Canadian Corner before carrying speed into the road and the “S” turn. By now, you are on the hill for 1:20, longer than most USSA downhills. The importance of the Minschkante and Canadian Corner cannot be denied. Get yourself out to the left off the Minsch and then get hard to the left foot on the brutal fall-away to stay high and carry speed into the road. The best thing about Wengen is that it’s sneaky. You get on the road and your instinct is to relax, but the “S” in the middle is always ICY and super narrow. If you fall-asleep or are not on the game, you hit the airbags and the game is over. Even though it is dead flat here, you can definitely lose the race here. Walchhofer did last season, I was standing 10 feet away when he bounced off the little side hill and almost hit the A-Net. Then through the famous tunnel and into the Super G turns. Again, this downhill is so long and the SG section is never on TV. It leads into the Haneggschuss area which is the fastest section of World Cup DH. Ligety went 158 KMH here a few years ago in the kombi downhill. Anyway, you need to exit the SG turns with a high enough angle on the Haneggschuss to make speed for the next flat. And down into the “S” at the bottom which is always injected and you have hit about 2:20. One more turn and on to the finish pitch, your legs are totally seized up, praying to finish. I once saw Bode throw himself off the finish pitch head-first because he was “done” and went way too straight into the pitch and knew he would not pull it off so he just dove, head-first down the finish pitch. I was there, I saw it, and he won.
It’s an insane week. The Kombi on Friday, then the DH and then the slalom. The slalom hill deserves an article all to itself. I think with training tomorrow and then kombi, I might be able to do that.
Watch the Swiss here; they have been capitalizing on the home crowd in recent years. I will be shocked if Cuche doesn’t make his statement. Defago won here last year and a variety of Swiss have dominated the Kombi in recent years. Watch for Janka to come back to prominence in both races. The American boys have good guys for this race. Miller can win, so can Marco as can Nyman. It is a great hill for Nyman because his fitness is such a strong point. I think Nyman just needs to tactically figure out the bottom section. It is usually injected and is always dark and very narrow in there. Erik Fisher could do well too if he can ski the top turns better. Italy boys Heel and Innerhofer can do well here too and watch for the return of Peter Fill. I don’t think he will be on the podium but he will play in the game for a while. Always, Walchhofer can do well here as can Klaus Kroell and Georg Streitberger. Mario Scheiber has been very good of late and I would think he will continue here. It looks as though Andrej Jerman will make a statement again. He won in Bormio in convincing fashion and Wengen taxes the system similarly. If he cleans up his top 60 seconds, he will be tough to beat. The Canadians have not looked exceptional in training and I cannot figure out why Erik Guay has not been good all season. But I would not doubt a top 10 appearance by Manny Osborne-Paradis. I think all the athletes were happy for the “day-off” due to the cancellation of the second training run. It will lead to much better skiing out of the guys at the bottom of the course.
Podiums:
Kombi: Janka, Zurbriggen, Zrncic-Dim
DH: Jerman, Sullivan, Defago.
Marco will surface here if he can get the top turns figured out. He did well on top last year and it led to a podium. I also think we will see the resurgence of Defago after the double of Wengen, Kitzbuhel last year will give him confidence.

Course setting for 24 years, and counting.

A friend of mine and current World Cup coach, Pete Korfiatis, suggested I write something with regard to course setting at the different levels. Your own awareness, pressure, experiences change as you move up the ranks. J3, USSA, FIS, NorAm and World Cup. What responsibilities lie with you, what goes through your mind? Well, as I have tried to outline this one and get some sort of clarity on what to write, which theme to stick to...I decided, it's my blog, I'll do what I want. I will just write away, see what happens. Have a read-through and post it.
I have been in the sport for 38 years or so since my first Pee-Wee Race on Suntanner at Stratton. That must have been 1972? I loved those races. The little wood blocks awarded with a black, blue or yellow ski school pin embedded in it. Or even better, the "Best Time of the Day" award.
I digress. I am entering my 24th season of coaching. My first year was at St. Lawrence University in 1986-87. I was a 5th year senior with no NCAA eligibility left. I needed a gym credit and worked in trade with the ski team and with Tom Aicher, my friend and our alpine coach that year. Tom had graduated in 1985. We were winging it. Clueless and trying hard to get it right. We didn't really know how to do anything. Hotels, entries, meetings, FIS entries, state associations, drills, radios, chargers. Forget course setting skills. We did our best and worked it out. And got a lot of help from Horst Weber and the coaches at NYSEF.
When I went to work at Stratton Mountain School in the fall/winter of 1987 I knew I was doing what I wanted to do and truly wanted someone to give me a leg up. I could talk the talk and work hard and all of that. Fritz Vallant was the Head Coach there at the time and was famous for telling you to "figure it out!" When Fritz left to go to some FIS races along with most of the rest of the staff, I was left at home for a weekend training session and was told I would be setting the first run of GS for the Janeway Cup GS. A USSA Master's race on North American. I started shaking almost immediately and tried to beg out of it. I had not even set a training course yet that year. Fritz simply said, "don't worry Needle, you're a natural." It turned out fine. I raced and trained on that hill my whole life. It should have been easy to set on and it was. I knew the things I hated to try to execute on that hill and avoided them. Later that year, I also set a FIS GS at Owl's Head in Quebec. It was one of those things where it was sprung on me at the meeting the night before. I stammered and said, "ok." I was there alone with girls and boys, some of the girls were in the first group so they felt it was correct form to offer.
That one turned out fine too. It was an extremely narrow trail with lift towers involved. A lot of work. All I could think of was to try not to set "into" any towers or trees.
After setting a hundred of race courses or so and maybe even a thousand training courses, I was standing on the side of my first World Cup as an insider and "inside the fences." I had been to all levels, I had set everywhere and all levels. I had set training for our World Cup boys that fall. I was ready to set a big time race. Unfortunately, that didn't happen for me my first season. But I did get to help Dave Kerwynn set SL in Kranjska Gora and was involved intensely in the process. I knew from going to almost every course set that season that this was a different deal.
I set 14 World Cups in 6 years including the World Championship Combi SL this past season. I don't get nervous anymore when called on to set. That wasn't always the case.
World Cup course setters are assigned by nation (with some rules) for the entire season in early October. So everyone knows who is setting which race for the whole year. Tendencies are studied and collected. The first run is almost always set the night before the race. This brings at least one coach from each nation onto the hill behind the setter. As well, you have World Cup Race Director, Guenther Hujara present and Technical Discipline Director Hans Pieren there as well. Plus another handful of assistants, local dignitaries, the TD, local coaches and staff, hill staff, media. It's a busy hill. Everyone behind you is measuring the distance of every gate whether it is GS or SL. Counting your turns, measuring vertical distances as well. It can be very daunting. Not to mention that Hujara is there pointing out camera angles as well.
Flachau, Austria, January 2004: Home of Hermann Maier and the Apres Ski Temple, Hofstadl. You have to check out the Hofstadl if you are ever there. Crazy.
I got my first course set assigned. First run of a World Cup Slalom. I had my plan, knew exactly where I wanted to go and what distances I wanted. And thankfully, Flachau is a relatively benign hill. It was very icy however. I started off with my helpers and started getting into a rhythm. I was setting along and there were a lot of coaches out there looking at the course. But this was before the tape measure really got going. So, we were feuding with the Austrians a bit due to the dissolution of our training agreement along with some other little battles and they knew it was my first World Cup set. So I get about 2/3 done and they come down with a little chain. Which is marked with 4 labels. 15m, 6m, 4m and .75m. Of course measuring legalities. But we don't know if their measurements are correct, etc. I complain to Hujara about it. He looked at me and shrugged. He said it looked about right and I had to go change some of my combos which I had measured with ski length. They laughed and taunted. I laughed and vowed to get even. I finished my job, the course ran well and my first one was in the books with little issue. That week, I bought a tape measure, took a clip from one of our ripped GS panels and built my own tape. The first of it's kind. And showed up at the next Austrian SL course set (Wengen) and started measuring for real. We all got a good laugh out of it but by the time we got to the World Cup Finals, Liski had build one from a logger's tape and everyone had one. Every gate of every slalom course has been measured since then.

I have had a lot of opportunity to set at the World Cup and have always been amazed at how much input the FIS gives you. Everything from safety issues to speed control to TV towers and angles they want to see. For instance, the basketball turn in the GS at the bottom of Adelboden is basically demanded by the Race Director as necessary due to camera angle. And he really would prefer if you used a delay to give the camera man a reference.
Since my first set in Flachau there have been a number of setting rule changes in slalom. 15m maximum to 13m maximum. 55(52) minimum turns, to 55 minimum, no tolerance to 30-35% of vertical drop in meters. All in an effort to create a shorter turn shape. To make the guys slide more and therefore go slower. This has worked to an extent but course setters on the WC have tried to push back out to 11 or 12m slalom. Some hills allow it, some do not. What the last rule change did was make the longer, steeper SL hills even more difficult by putting more turns on them and the shorter ones easier because you no longer have to fit more gates on them. Kitzbuhel has become easier to set on, Wengen is exactly the same and Schladming has become more difficult. Schladming has become more difficult to set on and to ski.
There has been an effort by the FIS to slow the athletes down through rule adjustment and lowering of stand-heights. To reduce carving, in short. We have seen the changes happen and the tendency has been for the course setters to barely make minumum turns. To make the distance as easy as possible for the athletes. To test certain skills like turning but to let them shine and look good. When I was working on the FIS tours and NorAms, the focus was really on fairness for the field based on the snow conditions, safety and then on testing skills. I always like the athletes to show me who can turn. And trying not to set something tricky. When I got to the World Cup a lot of the focus became speed control and safety. I always looked at it on the World Cup as a 3 way goal: let the athletes have fun, let the athlete shine and to let the hill shine. We can look at it the same way at a FIS race. The comment I am really hoping to hear from an athlete who just finished a course I had set is that it was fun.
As I said before, I don't get nervous setting anymore, but I always have a plan. And I always hope the athletes enjoyed it.

Course sets for the USA this season:
Women:
Trevor Wagner set run 2 in Soelden last week.
Seth Macadam has run 2 of the slalom in Lienz, Austria at the end of December.
Alex Hoeldelmoser has the SG at WC Finals in Garmsich which winds through the woods and is a challenging hill.
Men:
Chris Brigham has the SG at Lake Louise as he did last year.
Pete Korfiatis has the first run of GS in Val d'Isere. This one is interesting because they had originally said they were going back to the old hill. Rumours have it that they will race on the Bellevarde, the World Championship hill. A much more challenging set and almost impossible to let the athletes look good.
Rudi Soulard has run 2 of the SL at Adelboden. Super steep!