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Press, 14 August 1980, Page 19

Stage one will involve a lift being put in up. to Shadow Basin (on the right hand side of the field) with the next lift up the middle into Shelter Bowl (ideal for .intermediates) following soon afterwards.

Unfortunately, the weather conditions precluded taking my skis off the helicopter and actually trying out the snow. (Anyway, the powder looked a little too deep to ski, although Geoff Hunt, the national freestyle champion and powder hound, would argue that there is no such thing). One complaint about the Coronet Peak field in the past has been the restricted size of the area for learners. At Rastus Bum, says Bob Forward, the learners’ and intermediates’ area will be 20 times bigger. An interesting prospect for the future is an F.I.S. downhill race at Rastus Burn. A downhill course with a vertical drop of about 610 m (2000 ft would apparently be possible. The helicopter pilot dropped Mr Forward back on the lower grassy slopes on the north end of the Remarkables where he was checking out the future access road. Work is expected to start on the 13km road this summer. * S?

Sno gimmick ... An interesting item landed with a rather hollow clunk on the everdecreasing clear space on mv desk this week. The

colleague who threw it had received a collection of Lake Placid souvenirs from relatives in Troy, New York.. This one was a sealed can purporting to contain “Winter Olympic snow.” There’s little evidence of the can having anything in it at all. But, for the record, tire label reads: “Contained in this can is a small packet of moisture, guaranteed by the distributor to have been actual 1979-1980 Lake Placid snow.” Wow. And there’s the rider that “this is not a beverage, do not drink” from the company responsible, Bronco Industries (1979). s«s *

At the age of 78, Oscar Coberger, of Arthur’s Pass fame, still likes to be No. 1. Last week-end he was among a group of 30 which skied the 29km-long Tasman Glacier and it was the oldest man in the party who got down first. Oscar say he’s skied the glacier nearly every winter for 50 years and the conditions were the best he had seen. The snow was easy to ski, with about 3 cm of powder on a firm base. The group had two runs, each involving a vertical drop of 1000 m. e « ❖

Although there might be some doubts about Sigi Bemegger’s grasp of English, there certainly did not seem to be any about the Austrian’s ability as a downhill coach. Both an Englishman

(Konrad Bartelski) and an Austrian (Christian WittDorring) will testify to that. Even before Bartelski sensationally beat the Canadian, Ken Read, in the international downhill at Mount Hutt on July 31, he sang the praises of his Austrian coach. “Sigi’s the best; if he says something you can believe it,” And the man who set that course, Witt-Dorring, says he was coached by Bernegger back in 1974 when he won the Europa Cup downhill circuit. WittDorring, based at Mount Hutt during our winters, looked after the New Zealand team in Austria over the northern season. (He’s still a pretty good racer, too, judging by his impressive win in the professional dual slalom at Hutt last Sunday). ® ® #

Herewith the annual “Views from the Top” prize list for the Queenfetown Festival Week from August 1 to 10.

On-the-mountain: Jointly shared between Ruapehu’s 19-year-old ski racer, Evan Bloomfield, and “Wayne” die ski. school man who provided the commentary for the Smirnoff pro-am and the F.I.S. races. Bloomfield came into the reckoning for his impromptu “freestyle” exhibition and remarkable recovery from a near-fall in the F.I.S. giant slalom. The ski instructor’s commentary, on the other hand, was distinguished by two things. First, for his mentioning the sponsor’s product (“. . . Allan Fraser likes Smirnoff with his comflakes”) an estimated 983 times during the Pro-am. Secondly, for his confusion about the sexes of the F.I.S. racers. It took him quite a while to notice that the "Boris Strels” and “Osamu Kodamas” he was describing coming down the course had ski suits with bumps on. Off-the-mountain awards; Shared between Dylan, the nine-year-old son of the Coronet Peak ski school instructor. Weems Westfeldt, and Mount Cook’s public relations man, Den* nis Rogers. Dylan Westfeldt gets a citation for his creative solo dancing effort at the Pro-am awards evening while Mr Rogers deserves a mention for a swift drive from the mountain to get four skiers and their coach to the airport in time for the 5 p.m. flight to Christchurch. (Unfortunately, there was no room on the plane for two of the group as it happened.) £ s’# :1s

While on the subject of the Festival Week I am reminded of a “dialogue” with an American tourist (or was it a Canadian?), wending his slightly disgruntled way back from the Queenstown bus station which services Coronet Peak, about 19 km away. The conversation (responses were strictly limited by a time factor to grunts) went like this: “I forgot my prescription sun glasses, right? “Once you get on the bus, you can’t get off, right? “One trip up, and one trip back!” There was also the remark I overheard in a conversation between two girls in the bus queue for Coronet. “Let’s take this bus. He’s the good driver.”