Hahnenkamm is the Super Bowl of skiing
The Super Bowl is two weeks away, but the Super Bowl of skiing is this Saturday, Jan. 23 in Kitzbühel, Austria.
The Hahnenkamm is the most legendary ski race in the world. Now in its 76th year, Kitzbühel’s Hahnenkamm is considered by ski racers to be the most difficult and demanding race in the world, the biggest victory or the toughest defeat.
The course is over two miles long and drops precipitously over 2,800 vertical feet. The best ski racers on the globe exceed speeds of 100 miles per hour on demanding reverse fall line slopes, catch huge air off jumps like the Zeilschusse, launching over 200 feet only to land, recover and carve through a banked compression turn nicknamed the mouse trap. The Streif, the name of this Kitzbühel ski trail, requires great technical skill, fast sharp stable skis, a skin-tight speed suit, and a serious dose of crazy.
Like the Kentucky Derby, which also puts two minutes on the race clock, this event is highly spirited. Instead of mint juleps, fans consume a huge amount of Schnapps. With as many as 100,000 spectators flocking the course and finish line, it’s quite an après ski party, starting before the first racer and continues into the night in Kitzbühel’s historic ski village. The Hahnenkamm is also televised; ski racers are rock stars in the Alps.
The Hahnenkamm has been won by US ski team racers Bode Miller (the combined in 2004 and 2008), Daron Rahlves (2003), Phil Mahre (1982-1983 combined), and Buddy Werner (1959). The most Golds have gone to the host country Austria, not surprisingly, including Egon Zimmerman (1963) who then came to the US and served as Ski School Director at Gunstock in New Hampshire for many years.
We skied Kitzbühel the week prior to the Hahnenkamm, now among my favorite ski resorts in the Alps. This vast resort is beautiful, big, with 54 lifts and 130 miles of well-groomed slopes, plus limitless off-piste skiing. Kitzbühel is anchored by the most delightful 700-century old alpine village brimming with luxury hotels, energetic après ski bars, and so much history. The Hahnenkamm serves as a metaphor for this ski town, true to its roots, timeless, even legendary but ever challenging the new arriving skier. Kitzbühel is authentic, athletic, ageless, and never dull, from first tracks to last racer down.
As for the Streif trail, I skied it, it’s humbling and hair raising, tricky and terrifying, and I didn’t ski the steepest pitches as race course preparation was underway with the construction of huge fences, nose-bleed grand stands, and lights installed by helicopter in case of fog or dumping snow during the race. I highly recommend you put Kitzbühel high on your must-ski list, during the Hahnenkamm when few people actually ski, or anytime. If you can’t make it to Kitzbühel, be sure to watch the Super Bowl of skiing – the Hahnenkamm — and you may want to view the Red Bull movie commemorating 75 years of this incredible ski race, appropriately titled “STREIF – One Hell of a Ride.’’
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