Steve Schlanger’s Blog

The month of February will be the busiest, most stressful, hectic, crazy, insane and yet thoroughly enjoyable period of skiing competition in some 24 months. That is because it is a month chalk full of world championships. The marquee event, the alpine world’s, are being staged in the glorious French Alps. The host town is the quaint village of Val d’Isere, nestled amidst soaring peaks in the southeast of France just miles from its borders with both Switzerland and Italy. VDS as we’ll call it, is recognized for having perhaps the largest ski area anywhere in the world. Yes, that is a warning for those of you who have lost your way in one of Vail’s back bowls that you might want to steer clear. VDS is gorgeous by any measure. It has the requisite medieval church spires, cobbled streets and corner pubs. The architecture is primarily wooden chalet giving the area a true and timeless alpine vibe. The mountains themselves seem to engulf you from the village floor like a natural French fortress. The beauty and charm are served up in equal abundance. The place is magnifique. It’s perfect to roam and wander and feel like you are experiencing the essence of the Alps.

Of course, that is on a typical day. And the world championships will be anything but typical. Hundreds of thousands jamming this bright little hamlet is gonna be chaotic. No other way to put it. Folks from roughly 70 different nations are expected and since it’s a modern day alpine crowd, safe to say the pubs will attract more business than the spires. Like any big event, it becomes a party. For some, it is nothing but. Imagine holding the Super Bowl in Peoria. No wait, that’s too big. Try Yuma, Arizona. All the fans, the flockers, the gazers and such…..all swarming a small resort town. If only alpine racing did not require a sloping landscape. It would be so easy to stage an event this size in a major market city if only the downhill could be run on a 1% gradient….oh right, it already is…they call it cross country skiing.

Regardless, the majesty of the mountains, the size of the stage and the electricity in the air will more than make up for the shoulder to shoulder experience. The world championships come around only once every two years and carry a prestige that is wholly unique. Unlike the Olympics, these championships are singular. Alpine and Nordic racing - which will have their event over in the Czech Republic immediately on the heels of the alpine – do not share their platform with all of the other winter oriented sports. Here, they stand alone. The lights are bright and the scrutiny severe. The focus is intense and the pressure immense. The title of world champion resonates in a definitive, universal kind of way. It is ubiquitous and beyond reproach. Something that heads any future resume and calls dibs on any corner table in every mountain town. The world championships are like nothing else in the world.

I guess that makes the line outside the VDS pub a little warmer on an otherwise frosty February night!

The month of January provides the best alpine racing every year. It is a month of monuments with the men racing at classic venues such as Wengen, Kitzbuhel and Schladming and the women hitting storied locales like Cortina.

These are courses steeped in history and defined by quirks and nuances that give them a meaningful place in the list of sports greatest stages. Just as golf fans revere the annual spring stop at Augusta and baseball fans revel in a game a Fenway, ski racing enthusiasts crave this January fix of alpine cathedrals. The drop into the Mausefalle in Kitz, the soaring jump of the Hundshopf, these are signature features that identify their track and give it texture and style. Careers are framed by what happens at these fabled venues. A win here will is a step towards alpine immortality. A victory elsewhere makes you a winner. Here, it transforms you into a legend.

This is the heart of the racing season and it runs through the soul of the sport. What happens in this next month will further shape the World Cup season and create heroes along the way. Watching the best athletes in a particular sport battle on that sport’s most hallowed grounds is the essence of great theater. Who will embrace the big stage and who will cower from its shadow? Will a newcomer have a performance that transcends talent and will others crumble under the weight of expectations? Will established stars emerge for an encore or stake their claim to a final shot at glory?

This next month provides a canvas for some great stories to be told. Yes, the world championships are next month in February, but the next few weeks offer up the calling cards of alpine racing. January truly is the greatest show on snow.