A first trip ‘round the world, part 31

“Slalom training anyone? Let’s meet at Chamois!”. 

This was a steep, pretty weird run at the back of the building we were staying at. There was a Poma serving that slope that, if I can recall correctly, had two loading stations.

The top one, of average incline was were we trained for slalom, even had the Chamois test, that timed slalom race for recreational skiers, a remote equivalent of the American Nastar, in which pins of bronze, silver or (very, very rarely gold) were given to the fastest participants. 

It seems to me that the lower portion of the slope was steep, wooded with a thin snow cover. Gérard also remembers that this lower section saw very little use, even by expert skiers who wanted to free-ski. 

He adds: "I’d even say that this run, outside of being perfect for slalom training, was hardly ever used because it was out of the way from Bourke Street “magnetic power” and the access to the better ski runs served by the Bull Run lift”. 

I remember that I had sold my pair of Dynastar MV2 and my Lange boots to Carey Petrovic, a fearless lifty from nearby Mt. Beauty, who managed to break one ski, clean, at the toe unit level. The guy was heavy, the speed high and the eucalyptus tree very, very hard! 

Altogether, the lift served a total vertical drop of about 500 ft. (150 meters) which was not much by Alpine standard, but was serious for Mt. Buller! Today the original surface lift has been replaced in 1993 by a Doppelmayr double chair renamed “Lydia’s” en 2011, to honor Lydia Lassila after her 2010 gold medal, and the runs are used for freestyle training and competition. 

Incidently, I remember that I interviewed Lydia in 2012, during the Freestyle World Cup in Deer Valley, while I was still producing videos for that resort.