I love winter and I love January. I always loved it. I always felt so playful during short January days, as I could smell snow and winter. And certainly the best thing was playing in the snow. As a kid, and as an adult.
When I was little I was always excited when it was snowing - I would get up during the night to see how much new snow fell, and I always wanted more of it. I was dreaming about 1 meter or 2 meters of snow, that nobody could clean, and everything would be white and pristine. I didn't understand that almost everyone else would be very upset with that amount of snow, and that many people would get a heart attack if so much snow fell!
January 2011 is over now. I will remember it for a long time as I was sick majority of it. I got sick during last year's Christmas, but I didn't take it seriously. Well, it was nothing serious, let's say that some nasty flu ran me over, and left me without energy. Good thing is that it is over now. However, I still know that I need more time to completely recover.
So, I got sick, and then I guess Murphy's Law kicked in. Obviously, I wasn't able to go skiing, and at the same time, my favorite mountains got the most snow in January in the last 30 years! Lake Louise got more than 160 cm, and even Mt.Norquay got more than 1 meter. It was powder everywhere. And I was nowhere. If I were OK, there wouldn't be any new snow, as all these previous years. Last 10 years we would get a lot of snow in November and December, and then nothing until March.
On the other hand January was exciting, again because of the winter and because of the snow. Somebody might ask, "How can the coldest month be exciting?". "How all of this snow shoveling can be exciting? Well, there were 14 World Cup skiing races in January. 'White Circus', how ski racing at the world level is usually called, was in its prime time.
I've always watched ski racing and Ski World Cup. Ever since I was a little boy. And I still follow it and watch it. For spectators, January is the best month, because the biggest races happen in January. It was super exciting this year as well, as Wengen and Kitzbuehel hosted spectacular races.
It was exciting because there were casulties again. Well, it was exciting in a bad way. I am not sadistically inclined to enjoy when people suffer. There is nothing worse when injuries happen in alpine skiing. These super dangerous ski tracks claim new (and old) victims every year. Unfortunately this year was not different than previous years. It's been actually worse than any previous year.
There were big crashes in Wengen and in Kitzbuehel, and the worst outcome was for Austrian skier Johann "Hans" Grugger who crashed heavily on Mausefalle in Kitzbuehel. Grugger is still in induced coma, after sustaining head injuries. Hopefully he will recover. Jan Hudec added a broken hand to his long list of injuries - he broke it in Wengen.
Prior to January, in Bormio, Louis-Pierre Helie tore ligament in his knee. Bormio claimed Marco Sullivan, last winner in Chamonix in 2008. Olympic champion, Dider Defago, didn't even start this season, as he tore ligaments in his left knee during training in September in Zermatt.
Big 'surprise' this year was that the biggest casulties were not in Wengen, or in Kitzbuehel. The most treacherous hill was in Chamonix, where 3 big names got injured and they are done for this season.
Mario Scheiber crashed during the last training run, breaking his shoulder blade and facial bones. Manuel Osborne-Paradise broke his left leg and torn ACL in his left knee, and Georg Streitberger broke his left leg as well. Less known Ryan Semple tore his knee ligaments in Chamonix as well.
For someone who doesn't understand how alpine skiing works, this wouldn't be news at all. However, for people who ski, and who perhaps love January and snow like me, this certainly sounds over the edge. There are too many injured athletes in World Cup Skiing. These skiers are not amateur skiers. They are well prepared and strong, and experienced. They certainly know how dangerous is their sport. But, when the start list becomes shorter and shorter, and when the best of the best get "eliminated", then, questions started to be asked - how all of this could be prevented, hopefully stopped?
Current World Champion, John Kucera crashed in November 2009, in Lake Louise when he fractured his left leg. He is still not back to racing, and he will not defend his title in Garmisch Partenkirchen in 2 weeks.
This year's World Championship (in Garmisch Partenkirchen) will not see Olympic (Defago) and World champion (Kucera) on it slopes.
Luckily, January brought good news too. The biggest was about Ivica Kostelic who broke record in number of wins during period of 1 month. He won 7 races, something that never happened in history. Last time when someone won 6 races in 1 one month was in January 1998, when Hermann Maier won 2 super-Gs, 2 giant slaloms, 1 downhill and 1 combined race.
That is statistics, but Kostelic made news in January, wining everywhere. Currently he alone has won more points than all skiers from USA together.
Tomorrow, we'll be in month of February, and I will be dreaming again about big snow, and about playing in that big snow. I hope that February will not bring new ski injuries.
