VIEWS FROMMS THE TOP

Press, 15 July 1982, Page 24

VIEWS FROMMS THE TOP

.by

Tim Dunbar

Instructor also a Munich brewmaster

People having trouble with their home brew over the next few months might get some sound advice from an unusual source: a ski-ing lesson at the Porter Heights field. The man with the specialist knowledge required to help out is Uli Dinsenbacher, the bearded young German who is director of the ski school there this winter. Uli Dinsenbacher has been a ski instructor at places as diverse as Sugar Bush, Vermont. and Portillo. Chile. Back home he is one of eight head instructors among a total of 50 at a ski school which, he says, is the site of the famous castle of Ludwig, the Mad King of Bavaria, and which is now depicted on beer bottle labels. It seems, though, that ski teaching is far from the only one of the 28-year-old Finsenbacher's talents. “My actual profession is brewmaster,’' he revealed in Christchurch last week.' “I . make beer in Munich'and was supervisor in the big state brewery.." Dinsenbacher picked up his expertise at Munich which, has the one University in the world where it is possible to Study brewing. He got a master's degree of science, majoring in beer and wine, an enviable combination. Of 95 students, just 12 graduated. At . his brewery, he said, they had normal light beer as well as white beer made out of wheat. “It’s . a. very special beer and the yeast is still in the bottle. The beer is cloudy,” “We also make a special strong beer for OctoberfeSt. It needs four months for fermentation.” . According to Dinsenbacher, drinkers in North Germany like bitter beer while those .in South Germany opt for sweet .beer. “People seem to prefer that here, too," he saia. So ■ the obvious question then was what New Zealand beer was the German ski instructor partial to himself. The answer: “I like the Steinlagfer and Macs.” Obviously, he has spent a bit of time breasting the bar at Warners Tavern before the ski-ing season opened.

Portillo, one of 10 ski resorts in Chile, might be 2890 m up with the inherent acclimatisation problems, but it has one big fan in New Zealand at - the moment. “Portillo is one of the best places I can imagine for skiing. Fantastic, terrific;” says Uli. Dinsenbacher, now resident at Porter Heights: Portillo ski-ing begins from a height of 3500 m (just, a little higher than Porters!) with a maximum drop of 750 m. Dinsenbacher likes the steep slopes of Portillo (45 deg.) where the world championship speed races are regularly held. Three years ago, Steve McKinney broke the 200km/h mark there for the first time. As well as working in Chile, Germany, and the United States, Dinsenbacher has skied “for only myself’ at Thredbo, in the Snowy Mountains. New Zealand : has his interest now, though,, and; after .spending the three months before the season started trekking and mountain climbing here he

has taken over as Porter heights ski school director. The ski school will have five full time instructors and eight to 10 part-time, and Dinsenbacher is very happy with his new position. “I would like to come back to New Zealand for at least another one or two years,” he said.

Plains dwellers still seem to have a standard image of ski-ing that, somewhere along the line, involves a limb being encased in plaster. Such accidents are actually far less frequent than those who have never ventured up to the mountains might think. But it does appear that the experts are not immune from disaster — and they don’t even have to be ski-ing at the time. Porter Heights' field manager, Brian Lewis, reputed to know his ski area “Like the back of his hand,” was actually, on foot, going up to fix a water pipe, when' he slipped on ice and broke a femur. Within a week the former New Zealand Ski Association, John Vryenhoek, was stand-

admiring the view when an out-of-control skier ran into him. Mr Vryenhoek, who has both a son (Mark) and a daughter (Mandy) in the New Zealand A team, consequently hit one of the towers on the T-bar and suffered a compound fracture of the leg and a mashed-up knee.

P. Mahre, of the United States, finished in ninth place in one of the last races on the World Cup downhill circuit, at Whistler Mountain, British Colombia, back at the end of February. Normally, that result would be nothing special, though the Mahres are slalom specialists. But it turns out that this particular member of the family was Paul Mahre, not the far better known Phil. The youngest Mahre apparently started last and ending up ninth was a remarkable effort. Phil Mahre is the present over-all World Cup holder and his twin brother, Steve, won the giant slalom gold medal in the 1982 world alpine championships at Schladming, Austria. Not for Paul Mahre any reflected glory in the family name, though. “He hates being the young boy of the Mahres,'” says the Canadian downhill racer-turned New Zealand coach, David Irwin. “He doesn't like to be associated with them.”

Ordinary ski races just might not be enough for spectators after the “Look Mountain Smoker" event at the Broken River club field on August 7. Broken River’s main tow is going to be the scene of some frenzied activity over a concentrated period of two hours as 30 competitors race up and down the field. Three top skiers have been invited from each of the 10 clubs in

the Canterbury region and the entrant who completes the most ’ up-and-down circuits will win the race. There won’t be any gates; each skier has to choose the route downhill which he finds most suitable. The race will begin in Le Mans-style with a massed start outside the ) lunch hut. The tow, with a ’ vertical rise of 300 m, will involve a 2min ride and the downhill section another 50sec or so. It is expected that the leaders will be able to • complete more than 40 circuits, all of which will be recorded by official marshalls. Broken River's club captain, John Laycock, says that stamina, speed, and safety will be the crucial aspects. Full-time ski patrollers will be on duty and regular skiers at the club will keep the main tow free and use other parts of the field. The entrants will be competing for individual prizes of ski equipment worth more than $lOOO and a teams’ prize to be known as the Mountain Smoker Trophy. Two Broken River club members brought the idea of the race back 'from Canada which they visited during the northern winter.