SWITZERLAND EXPECTS BIG WINTER SEASON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18367, 20 January 1928, Page 15

SWITZERLAND EXPECTS BIG WINTER SEASON.

CRAZE FOR SKI ING HAS NOT DIMINISHED. GENEVA, November 20. According to information from the chief mountain resorts, the winter season in Switzerland is likely to create a record. ! The great attraction will be the second Olj-mpic Winter Games. which open at St. Moritz, in the Engadine, on Februar3’ 11, and continue over a period of nine days. Many English people who generally winter in the south or in Egypt have already booked rooms for early in the New Year, but. despite the rush, it is stated that accommodation for everybody will be available either at St. Moritz or at resorts in the neighbourhood. The report that prices have been increased is denied by local hotelkeepers and others. The craze for ski-ing still shows no signs of diminution, and it will be again the most popular sport this winter. Its great attraction is freedom of movement and the facility for seeing fresh places. Already, at this early stage, thousands have taken advantage of the precocious winter to "try out” their skis, and some magnificent runs have been possible at altitudes above 3000 ft.

The honour of organising the Olympic Winter Games will coat the townshiip of St. Moritz at least £16,000. several thousands of which have been spent on the new Olympic ski leap. Sportsmen of 22 nations will compete for Olympic honours at St. Moritz. Great Britain will probably have no serious competitor in that most exciting and hazardous of ice sports, skeleton racing on the Cresta run. The Cresta is a fluted ice track 1320 3'ards long, with a gradient of one in seven. The record for the run is held b} r Captain Webb Owen and Mr G. H. Slater, both of whom, in 1911, did the course in 58 l-7sec, or an average speed of about 50 miles an hour. In the bobsleigh events Great Britain, the present holder of the European championship, should be able to dispose of the Swiss, the only people likely to put up a serious challenge.