St Anton

With extensive skiing for all abilities, amazing après ski and hotels, bars and restaurants oozing style, professionalism and service, St Anton is unique in so many ways but perhaps its biggest attraction is that after years of development, growth and numerous world class sporting events it still retains its classic charm and friendliness.

I was last in St Anton for the World Alpine Ski Championships in 2001, an event still described by many as the best in the history of Alpine ski racing. New courses were designed, railway stations moved and huge new conference facilities built to showcase the sport. The benefactor of all these major developments are the resorts themselves so in 2007/08, St Anton still has amazing grandstands, facilities as well as some of the most exciting race courses in the world.

With the women’s World Cup in tow,n St Anton once again aimed to raise the bar, grabbing the headlines by slightly developing the 'Men’s' World Championship course for this Women’s event. The excitement of athletes and journalists was palpable and of course if you ask the World’s top female downhill skiers to race a Men’s course the response would be a simple - “Bring it on!”

In all World Cup downhills there are two practice runs on the two days leading up to the event. It’s a chance for the racers to learn the “race line”, snow conditions and for us commentators to develop a guide as to who the course suits and who it does not. In St Anton it felt like Santa Claus was coming early as Britain’s Number 1 Chemmy Alcott placed two top 10 training runs.

Another exciting development was that a new expert joined the World Cup Skiing on 4 team for the first time. Michaela Dorfmeister is a legend in World Ski racing having won 25 World Cup races, the overall title in 2002 and the downhill title in 2003 and 2006. Michaela also won World Championship gold in St Anton in 2001 and ended her career after winning two Olympic Gold medals in the Turin games of 2006.

On downhill race day, the crowds swarmed the finish area in hope of an Austrian victory on home snow. Conditions were perfect and the huge early season snowfall made St Anton look like a picture postcard with the sun beaming down on this challenging men’s course. It had become clear in training that those who push the limits, take risks and ski this man’s course with power and ambition would take the podium positions.

The North American skiers put on an incredible display denying the Europeans any chance of a place on the podium and sending a chilling message to Europe’s ski nations. After crashes, near misses and a race full of drama Lindsay Vonn of the USA took top spot and her second win of the season after taking the tour opener in Lake Louise. Formerly Lindsay Kildow, Americas top downhiller pushed her skiing to the edge and delighted her Austrian sponsors Red Bull with an emphatic victory.

Kelly Vanderbeek of Canada took the runner-up spot with her best result of the season to date, showing the strength and depth of the “Canadian Speed Queens” as the 2010 Olympics come ever closer. Third position went to Julian Mancouso, a relief after her slow start to the speed races this season.

Aside from the ski racing my advice if you are heading to St Anton is as follows...

- Stay in town at the original Post Hotel which is a family run hotel with a great restaurant and bar. From the Post Hotel you can walk everywhere and it really is superb value for money.

- Sample world famous après ski at the historical Krazy Kangaroo just opposite but please remember you have to ski down to the village after your classical Austrian après session. Get there around 4pm and try to leave by 7pm!!

- In town, the Piccadilly has to be the best live music venue and club in the Alps right now and certainly the best on the World Cup Tour.

- One of my all time favourite places is The Alberg Hospiz - a beautiful hotel with a stunning restaurant and has one of the best cellars and wine selections in the Alps.

Coming up next is Adelboden, where we stayed in a brand new spa hotel owned by Brits, we experienced the toughest GS on the men’s tour and the rudest receptionist on the planet!

Val Gardena

In this Sud Tirol region of Italy, Austrian and Italian influences sit comfortably together and the region even has its own ancient language - Lardin. It's another World Cup venue that I strongly recommend that you add to your winter destination list. The local produce of fruit, wine, cheese, meat and pasta is world class. And the quality of hotels is generally much higher than their star rating. The skiing in the surrounding Sella Ronda is vast with well groomed pistes and offers a series of fantastic small ski resort destinations giving you a different stop every day.

The Sella Ronda is made of four valleys with 500 km of interconnected slopes and 450 lifts making it one of the largest connected ski areas in Europe and as long as you have enough energy, it's a ski enthusiasts dream!

The whole area is steeped in history and tradition from both an Alpine and ski racing perspective. Britain’s best ever downhill result was achieved here in 1981 by my co-commentator Konrad Bartelski, who was runner-up to the big Austrian Erwin Riesch.

The downhill for the 2007/08 season saw a new improvement to the lower section of the track offering higher speeds, better safety and a gripping final section for the finish crowd to enjoy.

This season the veterans of the men’s tour dominated the speed racers. Traditionally the Super G is raced 24 hours before the big downhill and three of the golden oldies took the podium with a combined age of ninety nine years! Top position went to Didier Cuche, Bode Miller second and Marco Buchel third.

Twenty four hours on and the scene was set for the big race. Everyone expected the Super G main players to blaze the trail. Defending champ Cuche took the early lead looking for his first win of the new season but it was an in-form Michael Walchofer, winner in Beaver Creek two weeks before, who recorded the fastest time of the day for his second win of the season.

Walchhofer, downhill champion in 2005 & 2006, had never won in Val Gardena before, but the family man from Zauchensee has hit a rich vein of form and holds the red leader bib after three of the 10 scheduled downhill races this season. A superb 3rd position for the popular American Scott McCartney completed the podium as the celebrations swung into top gear.

As far as the Channel 4 ski team is concerned, Val Gardena is easily one of our favourite stops of the tour. Our top hotel is by far from being the plushest or trendiest but the family run Hotel Interski’s home cooking, local good value wine and grappa every night with the owner, Albert and son Lucas, takes all the workday stress away in minutes. All in all, Val Gardena has all the key ingredients for a perfect winters sports holiday - great skiing, snow, local history, food, wine and culture and, most importantly, excellent value for money.

Aspen

Why it’s the best is quite simple, every ski holiday starts with travel to and from the resort and not many ski resorts give you the opportunity to take a scheduled airline flight to the local airport 3 miles outside of town making the ten hour journey very easy indeed. Take British Airways London to Denver and then Denver to Aspen - or an even cheaper route is United Airlines London to Chicago then Chicago to Aspen direct whisking you right to the door step of the resorts and famous ski areas.

If you are looking for something special and you have a pretty special budget to match, then the Little Nell is a beautiful 5* ski in ski out hotel in the centre of town. This personable hotel has managed to keep its local charm, friendliness and manages to keep away from the corporate commercial big chain type holiday concept and offers luxurious rooms, an award winning Montana restaurant and the Aspen Mountain gondola is about 100 metre walk from the ski room of the hotel. Don’t be afraid to ask for a special room rate especially within the off season, you would be surprised what discount can offered and in America this is something that they do not see as a rude or a cheap skate tactic... it is almost a way of life over there!

For those of you without bottomless wallets and like the Channel 4 ski team have to watch the pennies, as with Beaver Creek I recommend you go down the condominium route. Again there are some great deals to be had here and the best bargain we have managed to find to date is the Lift One Condo Complex on Durant Street. Not only do the Channel 4 team stay here but I have also stayed here with my kids for the past couple of years and the short walk to town is a great warm up before the days skiing and a great excuse to have one of those classic over sized desserts before heading home at night!

On the subject of dining out Aspen has it all and due to the quality and high service standards all over the resort, all of the restaurants from American to Italian, Chinese to Japanese, Fusion to gourmet offer impeccable cuisine and world class service. My favourites are based on keeping my kids happy, my girlfriend's apetite for people-watching and my own individual needs for good wine, good service and a bit of fun on the side! Eat and drink any day of the week in Jimmies, legendary Alaskan crab claws, succulent steaks and daily specials which represent great value for money. My tip is to drink the house margaritas and move onto the French wine which is much cheaper than the over rated Californian stuff and dividing everything by two you find yourself able to purchase wines from a page you would never go near in a London restaurant!

For a special occasion I discovered a French restaurant called Cache Cache where we celebrated my co-commentator Martin Bell’s 50th birthday. And after a hard morning's skiing the lunch specials in Italian favourite Mezza Luna are also to die for and guaranteed to give you the energy and enthusiasm to get back out there in the afternoon.

Aspen is also famous for its amazing shopping opportunities, a favourite particularly for the ladies who love their designer labels from bags to boots and clothes to creams. You name a designer label of any fame or fortune and I guarantee they have a store in downtown Aspen. So be warned! You may have steered clear of the swanky hotel and saved a fortune staying in a condominium, you may have taken my advice eating and drinking with the locals. But just as you are starting to think that a week in Aspen could be cheaper than a week in Switzerland, Austria or France, the wife or girlfriend disappears whilst your churning through the powder and spends all that saving on a designer bag or three!

After all that wining and dining I forgot to mention that we were on the women’s World Cup tour with yet another dramatic race for the Channel 4 ski team to cover. On arrival in Aspen the snow started falling, one metre after day one, two metres then three, the first big storm of the season had hit Colorado turning Aspen into a powder skiers wonderland.

These were far from ideal conditions for a downhill ski race but like the men's tour, this is the only women’s American stop on the World Cup circuit so the pressure on the World Cup organisers and the FIS to get this race away is huge. Sadly downhill ski racing does not get that much exposure on National television although Aspen attracted America’s National broadcaster NBC and everybody wanted to get started.

In deteriorating conditions, the starting hut for the race was lowered, gathering pace throughout the early morning start. A huge crash in the early stages of the second downhill of the season from Alexandra Meissnittzer brought cries for the race to be cancelled or halted due to the bad weather conditions. It was one of those touch and go decisions but when the Austrian women’s coach Herbert Mandel started pulling his young Austrian ski racers out of the competition and not letting them start, a sense of urgency and crisis started to emerge.

In my mind race director and FIS representative Atle Skaardel used his own ski racing experience, his calm as a former national team coach and his expertise as race director to keep the race going almost to the end making sure that everybody involved in the huge calculation and bigger picture of a sporting event were satisfied. I feel he took all the right decisions at the right time concerning the safety of the racers.

There is no question that some of the athletes had to deal with more difficult conditions than others but that is one of the key characteristics of winter sport and will be the case for more many races in the future. We cannot expect perfect conditions week in week out for a tour that runs for 5½ winter months. In the end, it was a brave performance by Canada Britt Janyk to take top position and her first ever World Cup victory ahead of early starter Marlies Schild, the defending Downhill Champion. Renate Goetschl placed third. American star Lindsay Von, who had been fastest all week in practice, had to settle for fourth position dealing with the worst of the snow storm conditions.

The Channel 4 ski team is heading back to Europe and the Italian resort of Val Gardena for the third men’s downhill of the season and we are also heading to the hotel where the fittest OAP in the Alps drinks grappa everyday before going on the slopes and we can’t wait to join him.

See you next week!

Beaver Creek

In complete contrast to last year in early December, this year the majority of the American, Colorado resorts were still patiently waiting for their first early season snow storms. Cold temperatures without precipitation had given the race organisers in Beaver Creek the opportunity to make a thin layer of watered man made snow creating a very icy, high speed downhill with more terrain, bigger jumps and thrills and spills than I have ever seen since the course was built by former Olympic Downhill Champion Bernard Roussi in the late 90s.

The full brutality of this course was clearly brought to everyone’s attention by the horrific crash of the World No.1 Aksel Lund Svindal in the opening training run. Aksel came powering into the Golden Eagle Jump at just under 90mph and slightly mistimed his take off. He flew mid air for almost the length of a football pitch and was catapulted into the netting shattering his cheekbone and jaw. However most worryingly whilst getting tangled up in his skis he sliced open his groin with a laceration which went right through to his internal organs and nearly caused the first fatal crash in Alpine ski racing for over 15 years.

Fortunately the Birds of Prey and Beaver Creek race organisation team is one of the most experienced, slick and competent organisers in the whole of the World Cup circuit and within a matter of seconds Aksel was receiving crucial medical support and was whisked away by helicopter to the hospital in Vail where not only Aksel’s life but also his ski racing career was saved by a group of world class surgeons.

Sadly it is the end of Aksel’s season but rest assured the young Viking will be back next season. However the loss of one of the most popular and successful skiers on the World Cup circuit took a lot of the edge, excitement and overall atmosphere from this season’s American classic.

For the past four years the big downhill race on the Birds of Prey course has been dominated by the Americans, recently retired Daron Rahlves began the winning streak with Bode Miller picking up the mantle for the past two seasons and it was no great surprise to see Bode as hot favourite to claim his first win of the season which would have coincided perfectly with the launch of his brand new social website (definitely worth checking out) www.SkiSpace.com

The other athlete grabbing all the headlines as one of the fastest Americans in training was the pin-up glamour boy, Steve Nyman, born in Utah and raised in Robert Redford’s ski resort of Sundance. Until his recent win in Val Gardena last season, Steve’s claim to fame was growing up cutting Robert Redford’s lawn and trimming the heads of the movie stars favourite flowers. At 6ft 3in with Redford-like piercing blue eyes and blond flowing locks Nyman himself looks like a budding Hollywood star. However, it is his skis that now do the talking at speeds of up to 90mph.

Come downhill race day the storms that everyone had been praying for arrived on the one day none of us wanted them! Minutes before the start the course had to be shortened and the starting hut lowered. The elite racers were genuinely scared having visited Aksel in hospital prior to competition and bringing reports back of him looking more like a boxer who lost to Tyson rather than a skier who lost to the mountain!

When the weather goes against the racers and the visibility is difficult and conditions generally unfavourable, the professional gamblers of the World Cup start to punt on the older more experienced racers of the circuit. The young racers show signs of fear, uncertainty and lack of miles in testing conditions. Therefore it was no great surprise to see the World Cup Downhill Champion from 2005 and 2006 step up to the plate and take top position in round two of the downhill tour.

Michael Walchofer, an Austrian who has had his fair share of crashes, bruises and battle scars, demonstrated a downhill performance of great skill, focus and real courage to put all of the tough memories of the training days and his poor start to the season in Canada behind him. He claimed his first win of the season ending the American dominance in Downhill at Beaver Creek and letting the likes of Didier Cuche, Bode Miller and the Canadian Cowboys know that the family man of the World Cup tour is not done just yet and maybe be ready to take back the Downhill title that Didier Cuche stole from him last year.

Beaver Creek was one of the few courses that Walchofer had never won on before which made his victory even more sweet and the Austrian team were delighted to take a second win with Hannes Riechelt taking top position in the Super Giant Slalom race.

A little bit of Swiss pride was restored in the final race for the men in Beaver Creek with Daniel Albrecht, very much their new rising star, taking top position in the men’s Giant Slalom and part of a new young breed of Swiss races that act both on and off the slope in a similar style to Bode Miller.

Now onto the good stuff. If your budget will allow and your diary can stretch to two weeks, I cannot recommend Beaver Creek enough as a world class ski resort, a friendly place to party and at two dollars for one pound, a fantastic winter sport destination for young and old, families or singles. Once you have taken the nine hour plane journey and the two hour transfer from Denver International that is!

The hotels for my liking are a little too fancy, almost snobby and over-priced but the star find in Beaver Creek are the apartments or condominiums as they call them in the USA, which are generally of an incredibly high standard, normally bigger than your house or flat back home and represent fantastic value for money. For the past two years the Channel 4 ski team has taken up residence in the Creekside Condos which offer 5* furnishings, sauna, steam room, outdoor Jacuzzi and a fitness room for about £120 a night in a condo where up to 6 people can sleep comfortably and 35 can come and party with relative ease.

I have to admit one of my favourite restaurants in Beaver Creek which every year I recommend to skiers - the beautifully positioned Tuscanini restaurant opposite the central ice rink - has changed hands and sadly was one of the most disappointing meals I have ever had in Beaver Creek since first skiing there in 1989. Gone is the flamboyant and creative Italian cuisine, value for money wine list and friendly staff in its place is a new regime of people trying to cash in on a great reputation of old.

So where to go I hear you say! Easy answer I reply! For the best food, service, atmosphere, drinks at the bar and table service in Beaver Creek. head to the Chop House. Young, attractive attentive staff, steaks bigger than the belly can imagine and a sommelier who will help you find the perfect wine at a price to suit your budget from experts to those who just enjoy a glass of table wine with their food. The best part of a meal at the Chop House is when you pick up the bill and divide it by two you can see all the English diners in the restaurant grinning all the way to the exit door.

On your way home drop into the Cray Coyote bar for a night cap, this is where you will meet the locals, get a true piece of Colorado après ski and if you feel the need keep on going until the early hours of the morning!

Last but not least, Beaver Creek also boasts a very famous old English ski instructor. Former London bobby Chalky White is one of Britain’s most famous but also gifted ski instructors and has lived in Beaver Creek for nearly a decade. This makes Chalky the perfect partner to find the best snow, powder turns and some good old British gossip in the bar after a hard day on Beaver Creek’s beautifully prepared pistes.

Now I am off to Aspen, my favourite ski resort at the moment and I am told that the snow is falling by the metre in the billionaire’s paradise and to make life even better we are catching up with the women’s World Cup circuit!

Lake Louise

However, to the delight of the Channel 4 ski team and to the horror of the world's best ski racers, Lake Louise was not the gentle introduction that many had expected this year due to lack of snow and some clever improved course design. Little snow on a downhill course means every bump, every roller, every fall away has greater exaggeration and, like most of North America, lack of early season snow created an incredibly icy and bumpy track to open the downhill season.

Lake Louise is the only downhill on the tour to be contested in Canada and therefore the pressure and focus on the Canadian downhill team - aka the Canadian Cowboys - is greater than any other stop on the circuit. Last year the Cowboys rose to the challenge in great style with Manuel Osbourne Paradis taking 2nd position in the downhill and John Kucera taking top position in the men’s Super G, becoming the 1st Canadian to win in Lake Louise. The 2007 race was full of similar expectation but was an event dogged by weather problems, particularly for the big race favorites such as previous winners Marco Buechel, Bode Miller, Herman Maier and Michael Walchofer.

The early start numbers in the opening downhill definitely had the advantage but downhill ski racing is all about taking the opportunity - if lady luck shines on you go for it.

One of my favorite Canadian Cowboys is the big burly downhill racer Jan Hudec. Jan’s family story of escaping the Czech Republic as a child with his parents on a boat and nearly being washed away in the ocean before getting to Canada is a touching story. It is clear that his hard upbringing has created one of the toughest characters on the World Cup circuit and a man feared and respected by his fellow competitors.

At the start of the race we knew Jan Hudec would be the racer to watch as he had recorded the fastest practice time 24 hours earlier and in the starting gate on race day, with the weather deteriorating at a rapid pace, the Canadian grabbed the opportunity of his early start number to put down a blistering performance good enough to give him his first World Cup victory and Canada’s first downhill win in Lake Louise.

The local crowd unsurprisingly went absolutely wild and his performance brought tears to the eyes of my co-commentator Ken Read who is now the president of Alpin Canada Alpine. It was a truly spectacular performance clearly demonstrating that the Canadian Cowboys are a force to be reckoned with on this season’s downhill circuit. Other pleasing results on the podium included American Mark O’Sullivan and the top Austrian in third - the young and up coming Andreas Buddha.

24 hours later we were back on the mountain contesting the opening super giant slalom that was won in convincing style by defending champion Aksel Lund Svindal, taking his second win in the early start of the season and in this kind of form looking like a sure contender to retain his Overall title.

The Banff National Park has over 4 million visitors per year and is one of Canadian top tourist destinations. Lake Louise is the highest village in Canada and you cannot help but chuckle when walking around the lake at signs saying “Beware of the Grizzlies”, “You are Now Entering Moose Territory” and “Never Travel Alone or You May be Eaten by a Bear”. So if you're heading to Lake Louise, remember the bears they talk about in Banff National Park are not the little furry cuddly ones but serious big brown fellas that will eat you alive.

So, after a much tougher opening downhill in Lake Louise we are now off to Beaver Creek in Colorado that rates as one of the toughest 3 downhills in the world. With Colorado still lacking pre-season snowfalls, it will be full of high speeds, big jumps and bone shaking turns... definitely one to watch out for!

Soelden & Reiteralm

This new season promises to be a real cracker most importantly because the snow has come early! We still have the nightmare of last year's races in Soelden, Austria clearly embedded in our minds. Four days of persistent rain brought a damp depressing start to the 2006/07 season where, to be honest, the World Cup tour was forced into embarrassing cancellations, including poor snow condition and a series of races on sub standard courses.

However, this year’s opening of the World Cup tour was a complete contrast. Austria has received the most snow in November for 30 years, Switzerland has received record early snow fall and classic resorts across the Alps have opened their ski lifts 2, 3 even 4 weeks early. To put it in technical terms, all the evidence is pointing to a cracking winter season!

For the Channel 4 ski team, the first stop of the tour is Soelden in Austria, a wonderful glacial resort with some fabulous 4* hotels and wonderfully efficient high altitude skiing. Our schedule at the season opener is always frantic as the world’s media are desperate to get their early season interviews. Personally, from all our interviews, I feel that there are four athletes from both the male and female tours who seem to be the skiers to follow or gamble on or simply watch as World Cup titles are collected.

Our interviews with Chemmy Alcott were just a joy. Behind the blonde hair and gleaming white teeth is a much more focused confident athlete who has genuine self belief that this is the season she can win World Cup races and to be honest I think she’s right.

Chemmy’s great friend Julia Mancuso from the USA is another skier to follow throughout this coming season. Not just one the most beautiful women on the World Cup circuit, she is renowned for her fun loving, happy go lucky zest for life and also is one of the few skiers that the mighty Austrians fear. Watch out for Julia in Giant Slalom, Super G and Downhill as she strives to become the only American women ever to win the Overall World Cup title.

I was also delighted to be granted an exclusive interview with last year's Overall World Cup Champion, who the day before my interview was also crowned Austrian sports woman if the year. Nicky Hosp is a wonderfully sweet and personable young woman working very hard for her English to be as fluent as can be. The more you talk to her and the more questions you ask her, a clear killer instinct coupled with confidence, power and strength shine through and make this Austrian hot favourite to retain her title and continue her dominance of the women’s World Cup circuit.

The other young lady to watch out for is girlfriend of men’s superstar Benni Raich, Marlies Schild. Schild had 7 World Cup wins from 9 races last season and she has become the ski bookies' nightmare. With legions of male fans all over Europe, she has taken women’s slalom skiing to another level. Some say Marlies has the skills to beat the men in World Cup slalom and many of them are glad that they don’t have to ski against her! However, this season she has set her sights on greater glory, not being content with the Queen of the slalom title she now has her sights on Super G, Giant Slalom and Downhill in her quest to become the Overall World Cup Champion.

Out of the all of the male pre-race interviews we conducted in Soelden, four skiers again caught the eye and in my opinion will be the main players of this seasons men’s tour. Defending World Cup Champion Aksel Lund Svindal, known as the attacking Viking looks stronger, bigger and more powerful than any other previous season. Much to the delight of his female fans and to my annoyance he’s better looking, in better shape and more confident about himself his skiing and his career than ever before. In my opinion this man is a sure fire winner of the World Cup tour and, with the exception of injury, I don’t believe anyone can stop the Viking!

The consummate professional of the World Cup circuit, and the Overall World Cup Champion the season before last, is Austria’s Benni Raich. This man could teach our soccer players a trick or two in public relations, media communications and general sportsman-like behavior. Once again I was delighted to sit down and chat with Benni about his forthcoming season and his happy relationship with Marlies. It is interesting to hear that even after all his highs and lows, he still loves the sport of ski racing. Benni has the ability to be able to tell jokes in English which makes you feel happy to be on the tour and he gives off a general aura of well-being which in a sport involving speeds of 90 mph and potential career threatening crashes around every corner is a joy a to behold.

The third main character, and the most controversial on the men’s World Cup circuit, is the American Bode Miller. A season never seems to go by without some story breaking based on Bode’s bad boy image and this new 2007/08 season is no different. In a blaze of publicity Bode has decided to leave Team USA and set up his own self-funded, private team nicknamed Team America. For the first time in his career Bode is being more than an athlete, he is also running a company with wages to be paid and with the country's top coach Johno McBride and a further 4 employees on board. Bode’s new nickname is Mr CEO. It will be interesting to see how Bode performs now he is paying all the bills himself and if this, plus the motivation of saying goodbye to the United States Ski Association, will bring him back to his winning ways.

My last tip for the season is the senior statesmen from the Swiss ski team, Didier Cuche, last season's World Cup downhill champion. Didier, who trained as a butcher before finding international fame in ski racing, is once again looking to carve his way through the World Cup circuit and prove that at 34 years of age you can still win downhills. A 5-1 shot with the bookies to retain his title is a bet I have already taken up!

And so to the opening Giant Slalom of this season in Soelden. In the women’s race we thought we were off to the perfect start with the new Team Chemmy guided by her new manager Matthew Stockford. Chemmy skied into 11th position after the first run, just over 8 tenths off the pace and faster than her friend Julia Mancuso who is the Olympic Giant Slalom Champion. However, on the second run with the top thirty going in reverse order Chemmy had to deal with one of the unfortunate consequences of international ski racing or any sport where your equipment is a key factor. At around about 30 miles per hour, Chemmy’s ski popped off and she very bravely managed to avoid a nasty crash but sadly her first season points score was denied. The top positions where battled out between Italy and Austria and to many people's surprise it was Italy that came out on top with Denise Karbon taking top position and Julia Mancuso taking a runner-up spot.

The men’s races saw the defending Overall World Cup Champion Aksel Lund Svindal start the defence of his title in sensational style finishing 5th after the first run. On the second leg the Norwegian gave us a perfect demonstration of his power, strength and focus and took the first men’s Giant slalom of the season in sensational style. With a really good level of fitness the veteran Finnish ski racer Kalle Palander also got back on the podium but the style and poise of Aksel’s win sent chilling messages to the teams of Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France.

There we were greeted by a snowstorm that lasted the entire four days of competition, producing up to 15 feet of snow on the mountain and giving Austria its heaviest snowfall in November for 30 years. The women’s slalom race was easily won by my hot tip for the season Marlies Schild in such brilliant style that I question whether she can be beaten at all season. Skiing into runner-up position was Schild's team-mate Nicky Hosp, making an Austrian one-two.

The men’s event threw up the first surprise of the World Cup season as a relatively unknown skier Mark Gini won both the first and second runs to record his first World Cup career victory and start a whole series of Gini in a bottle newspaper headlines across the Swiss cantons.

My final comment for the opening slaloms of the season is that we discovered a fabulous hotel just outside of Schladming opposite the ski lifts of Reiteralm. Due to the massive snow fall the power of the hotel Pichlmarygut failed mid-dinner. Candles were lit all over the hotel, in the restaurants, stair cases and bedrooms which made the first big one of the season even more magical. It’s been a long since I’ve blown the candles out to go to bed! The only trouble was that we were all woken at 4am in the morning by all the lights, television and radio coming back on all at the same time!!

The season seems to have got off to a great start and I am sure we are in for some exciting ski racing, so stay tuned to Channel 4!