BRITISH SCHOOLBOYS RACES 2008

Report from Richard Berry, Chief of Championships

This year Schoolboys races returned to Switzerland but not before we had tried five other resorts in the Alps. It seems that the half term holiday in the Alpine countries moves with Easter and Easter being early this year meant that high season in the Alps had moved one week earlier into the last week in January and now conflicted with our chosen dates for the Schoolboys Races.



Despite opening discussions with two other areas in Switzerland, we finally visited Meiringen late in August. Fortunately we had checked out the race courses several years earlier and knew that Meiringen – Hasliberg has many attributes which are not apparent on initial consideration. Heinz Anderegger who had been training the Sandown club for several years, had recommended to the tourist office that Meiringen Hasliberg should open its door to ski racing events especially from the UK. We were delighted to find that the chairman of the tourist and hoteliers association Nils Glatthard was keen to meet us and it did not take long before we had the making of a new race venue. The biggest problem was going to be accommodation but little did we know that our main hotel, the Viktoria in Hasliberg, was to change hands on the first of January. With the resort almost full by the end of November we had to find an extra fifty beds. Fortunately the tourist office came up trumps and by the time we arrived in the resort we had filled every bed available and there were about 350 people coming to the event.



At first glance Meiringen would appear to be lacking in altitude and my greatest fear was to end up in a resort without any snow. Until you realise that there are four stages to the lift system before reaching the main ski area one may be forgiven in not realising the potential. In fact there are two race areas both of which are suitable for our events. Given the quantity of snow in the Alps this year we were spoilt for choice but the recommendation from the lift operators was to use the Hohbiel race piste which was well protected from the early morning sun as it faced westward.



The resort asked for a meeting with the Hasliberg mountain organisation three days before we were due to arrive, this was not a problem since we were taking a few days in Loetschental making final preparations and collecting some of the material needed for the event. However this was the day that a depression passed through Switzerland and closed most of the resorts in the Bernese Oberland but the meeting did take place and we spent all the time in the warmth of the Magisalp restaurant. So much to our surprise protection from the sun was our only consideration when the forecast promised three fine days of racing and not a day went by without the sun making the event one of the most enjoyable so far.