The Janssen Family World Travels: February 2012

In June, 1914, the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in Sarajevo. This was the spark that started the Great War or what is now referred to as World War I. Following this war and World War II, many felt that there would never be a World War III. I’m not too sure. I think the Austrians might try to start WWIII, all because of some well-meaning but misunderstood American children.

The Janssen kids continue to improve on their already formidable skiing skills. The same cannot be said for their father, but that's not important. In December we tried valiantly to enroll them in the local St. Anton racing program, only to be repeatedly rebuffed because they aren’t in school here, we haven’t lived here for three years, their eyes aren’t blue enough, blah blah blah. We thought we were out of luck with race training, but then a ski guide referred me to the racing team at the nearby (5 miles) village of Pettneu. They have a great skiing program, having produced Austrian champions Mario and Michael Matt, both stars on the current world cup circuit. This local club has welcomed our kids in their training sessions (3-4 times/week here in St. Anton) and we were recently invited to their first race at their local hill. The only negative about Pettneu is that their local resort is in bankruptcy, so they held their first race on a hill under the non-functioning gondola. So whilst my bride was chatting away with girlfriends in Paris, I tried to get the kids there on time (unsuccessfully). After a late arrival, we stressfully hiked about 500 feet up the hill (picture kids effortlessly climbing on top of the snow while their dad with 2 pair of skis repeatedly breaks through the snow and sinks in to his waist). Flustered, with no practice or familiarity with the course, the Janssen kids were nonetheless ready. Halle set the tone. To the ohs and ahs of the audience, she laid down a blistering run. Hayden followed, never to be outdone, silencing and tantalizing the crowd with his supernatural carving ability. Syd and I then had to hike another 500’ up to the big kid course. Sydney laid down such a fast run compared to the other girls in her age group that I wanted to bury my head in the snow in shameful pride, whilst the local parents sneered at the vile newcomer. Unfortunately, about 20 skiers later I had to follow her, being a family event and all. Warmed by an obligatory shot of schnapps from the starter, and equipped with a backpack full of food and gear, I muddled my way down the course, making not myself, my children, nor my country proud. Sydney thought she skied horribly, having nearly fallen after absorbing an indiscernible cow path at high speed. She still managed to smoke me by 2 seconds, even with my approximately 150lb weight advantage. Each Janssen kid handily won their age group, while their dad settled for 4^th place in the “old men that didn’t fall” division (I think there were 5 of us and the guy in 5^th lost a ski). The trophy presentation was great. I was beaming, as were each of the kids. Halle took the podium and raised her trophy high. There was some mumbling and a few gratuitous looks. Hayden repeated this, and when the name Janssen was announced this second time, the grumbling and unwelcome stares and murmurs increased. I turned my coat inside out, took off my hat, and put on sunglasses but when Sydney also won gold to go 3 for 3 the crowd was near riotous. "Burn them!" I thought I heard. Thankful to not have 4 children, we grabbed our trophies (even lame-o dad got one, with a bonus Homer Simpson-esque doughnut) and stealthily escaped the brewing mob. I double check the door locks each night, and have hired additional security detail both on and off the slopes but if we somehow go missing, the culprits are probably Pettneu ski team parents.

The adrenaline rush from the speed of skiing should be more than adequate for most, yet our apartment is very close to a high-speed sledding run so we have had numerous occasions to further tempt fate and injury. Rodel is the German word for toboggan. The rodel is more like a luge than the classic American flexible flyer of my youth. After having to pay an $80m personal injury award to John Edwards for a broken leg, the flexible flyer company went bankrupt in 1979 but the basics of the metal on snow design have been retained by the rodel, and here with skiing and with sledding, all is truly at your own risk. The rodel has two curled wooden sled rails onto which are screwed metal slats or rails. You sit on top of a webbed seat strung above the rails. Basically a little box sled that goes really, really fast. The course is about 3 miles long and groomed nightly. You control the sled by digging in your heels to stop or if you dig in one more than the other, that is the direction you turn. Kids love it while an adult spine that is well into its 5^th decade is good for no more than two runs. Sledding is an amazing incentive for schoolwork or skiing stamina. Thankfully there have been no major incidents but with the onslaught of colder weather the frequency of sledding has increased.

In the last post I waxed about global warming and specifically the lack thereof. Well it stopped snowing a few weeks ago and as additional proof that the world is getting colder we have been hammered by the “Siberian Express”. It’s been about 10-20 below (F) for a good chunk of the past few weeks. Still it has been beautiful to get out and enjoy the clear skies and the chalky groomers.

The kids do race training about 3 days each week from 2-4 and all are enjoying it and are with some great coaches and kids. That unfortunately has given Traci the opportunity to want to go skinning every second day instead of every 3^rd or 4^th. For those non-skiers, skinning or alpine touring is where you put on sticky strips called skins on the bottom of your skis and you use your skis to climb UP the hill. Yep that still sounds wrong to me too. Once at your destination you remove them, clamp down your bindings and ski down. Why a person would want to do that after real skiing, I don’t know why, but who am I to question? I love chairlifts, and unlike my wife, have never met a lift I didn’t like. Be it a T-bar, poma, chairlift, gondola, cable car or helicopter I think that any non-self powered lifting device is wonderful. In fact, the pace of technology with lifts continues to be a marvel. Many of the new lifts here have heated seats. They use solar panels on the top of gondolas and batteries on the chairlifts. The Austrians are so clever. Thank you Dr. Dopplemayer.

Despite earlier protests about self-powered ascents, occasionally I am a glutton for punishment and recently hired a guide to safely explore some of the surrounding terrain that is only accessbile by touring. We climbed for about an hour up a 40 degree slope to a small gap in the rocks at the top of a nearby ridge. It was so steep that I had to take off my skis and climb the last 100’ or so with my skis off and using them as a sideways brace dug in the snow above my head to help pull myself up the slope. We then side-stepped our way through a rock minefield to a lovely 2000’ vertical powder run. This was followed by a 2 hour hike to a second ridge at another ski area. As we neared the top, we passed a group British guys who had the same idea. One fairly young guy, gasping for breath at about 8,000', loudly complained to his guide "you forget I sit at a desk all day!" Everyone around thought that was just hilarious, except his guide who blithely replied "Ja...Velcome to my office hah hah hah!" Classic. Our descent was down super steep slopes, past 4 mountain goats, over a road tunnel built by the Polish POW’s in WWII, down to another village and then 3 lifts later I was back in St. Anton watching the kids train. This place is just enormous, and we haven’t and won’t see most of it.

Over the past month we’ve also had a couple of fun spectator events. We traveled the 3^rd weekend of January to Kitzbuhel, Austria and watched the slalom and the world famous Hahnenkamm downhill race. This is one of the most treacherous downhill courses on the world cup circuit. Unfortunately it was snowing and foggy so they cut out the top 1/3 of the course for safety, but still it was incredible to see how fast these guys go in person. We saw Bode Miller and Ted Ligety and did our best to yell and scream and wave Old Glory but we were a drop in a bucket of Austrian Red. This is the Austrian’s equivalent of the Super Bowl, and it was great to see 50,000 skiing fanatics. In addition we watched a local race called the “hutten rallye” or “hut rally” which is a no rules ski-cross/Chinese downhill tournament where groups of 4-6 skiers start and ski a steep fast downhill type course that happens to go through or over a dozen or so huts on the mountainside.

We were joined for 3 days recently by the incomparable Nella Nencini, our guide from Kenya. It was great to see her again after spending most of 7 weeks together in Africa this summer. Nella grew up skiing at Tahoe so despite many years in Africa, she still knows how to get down a hill. She could probably qualify for the Kenyan Winter Olympic team. Thanks Nella for your friendship, your easy smiles, for your infinite patience reviewing thousands of pictures of our safaris with the kids, and for not getting too mad at me when I took you on a heinously steep icy “river run” which resulted in your spending a few unplanned minutes wrestling a bushJ!

We’re looking forward to some visitors over the next few weeks. My best friend from college, Joe Raver, is working in Zurich for several years and he and his wife Anne and two boys are here this week, followed by an overlap of the Jay Buck family and the Chapman family. We head east, starting in Turkey, on March 6th. We all hate to think of leaving here but as a fellow world traveler recently mentioned….”get out of those lederhosen and get moving!” This has been such a great spot for our family. Incredibly safe, healthy and active and we’re surrounded by kind, caring supportive people on all fronts. But all good things must come to an end lest they not be fully appreciated, and so the time nears to resume our marvelous journey.

Based on feedback (primarily from grandparents), I've added a few more videos prior to the static pictures. The first is a bit of powder skiing below some avalance fences, followed by some giant slalom training runs of Sydney, Hayden and Halle.

What is wrong with this picture? Absolutlely nothing. On a warm afternoon in mid-January, I decided to supervise my kids from an enlightened position while they enjoyed the terrain park. Note the small child in the air just over the orange box to the left of the beer, between the lift towers. Pretty sure that is one of mine.

Kitzbuhel Austria with the downhill course in the background

Halle cheering on an American racer in the slalom race

Kitzbuhel slalom

Halle. powder princess prowess

Hayden focused

Sydney getting after it

Effortless

Hayden and his buddy Sam Chapman. Because it was there.

Good parenting with great support from Hayden and Sydney. "Halle you go first!"

Hutten Rallye. Notice the guy shooting out of the hut

Chappy you made the blog! Greg Chapman in his salmon colored ski pants. The kid is obviously comfortable in his skin. I promise not to show your wife the entrance to this chute!