kitz

We spent the first part of the 3 week school holiday visiting the Duras family in Kitzbühel, Austria.  Kitzbühel is most famous in the skiing world for The Hahnenkamm, the most terrifying and demanding men's downhill race on the World Cup circuit.  Our hotel was at the base of the Hahnenkamm Gondola, so even though the race takes place in January, it loomed large in our minds the entire time we were in Kitz.

Graydon in the start of the famous Hahnenkamm

The course itself is called the Strief (german for streak) and having now skied it myself (slowly and carefully, with lots of turns), I can assure you that all the hype about this run is true.  It has it all - huge jumps, narrow passages, hairpin turns and really steep pitches.  As Jeff said - you're on the gas from the moment you leave the start and you can't let up until you cross the finish line.  There's no room for error and nowhere to relax, even for a second.  Just ask Todd Brooker or Brian Stemmle, 2 Canadians who have had spectacular crashes on The Strief.





Imagine our pleasure on the first morning as we climbed into the gondola, only to discover a large sticker on the window with Didier Cuche's name, a Swiss flag and a list of all his wins at Kitzbühel.  It only took a few seconds before we realized that each gondola cabin is named after Hahnenkamm winners, so it became a race to see who could read the names on the cabins first as we passed each one.  Big Canadian cheers when we passed Steve Podborski (1981+1982), Ken Read (1980) and Todd Brooker (1983) - a 4 year reign of the Crazy Canucks!  On our last day, Esmée and I waited at the bottom to get a picture of her beside Craigleith's own Steve Podborski.

It was wonderful to see Matthew and Veronica and get to know their lovely daughters, Isabella and Valentina.  Veronica is Austrian and her family has a beautiful working dairy farm in the Kitz valley where they all gather for weekends and holidays.  Matthew is Canadian, but has been living and working in Czech running his family's farm since the early 1990s.  They met skiing in Kitz and now live in Tetin, just outside Prague.  

dinner with the duras clan

Spending time with Matthew, an old friend of both Jeff and I, and getting to know his family better was tremendously good for our souls.  Amid the constant reminiscing about the good 'ole days of tree planting and ski racing, there were many, many laughs and lots of exploring on the ski hills together.  Plans are already underway for an excursion to the Czech Republic in July...

esmée, isabella + valentina

delicious lunches on the mountain

amazing views

old school double chair with swing out bars and foot rests