Year 2001

After previous year's heart problems, I came to conclusion, that my time for skiing was not unlimited. So I gave first priority to Worldloppet, to ski all races I haven't skied yet and on the way, earn the second Worldloppet medal. Luckily Jizerska 50 was added to Worldloppet series and placed at the beginning of the season, before DolomitenLauf. So I could do 4 races in 4 weeks, other two being Marcialonga and Konig Ludwig Lauf, which I did already in 1994.It started in Prague, so exciting again!

Then I moved to Liberec and found an accommodation in Bedrichov, the place of the race. First day, during breakfast, I noticed a familiar face - Robert Palliser from Canada, the person I met 7 years earlier in Italy.

On ski trails, there were more pleasant encounters, full pack of Australians: Charlie Andrews form Melbourne Nordic, Margaret Hayes and Bruce Wharrie from Mt Beauty, Jenny Jones and David Innes from Bright.

Jizerska 50. Very pleasant race. I have to admit, that excitement with surrounding and meeting so many nice people, somehow dominated my stay in Czech Republic.

Robert suggested, that we travel together to Ramsau for a couple of days, then to Lienz. That was a great company.

In Lienz, I stayed together with Charlie. There was no snow in the city, but the organisers were already prepared for it. Races were moved to Obertillach. Robert drove us there everyday.

Dolomitenlauf. The race started with a blessing by a local priest. And then.. I thought that I was in New Zealand. Same type of terribly monotonous zigzagging like in Merino Muster last year. Other than that, the course led in beautiful and challenging terrain. But the final zigzagging killed most of the joy.

From Lienz, I travelled with Charlie Andrews to Moena, in Italy, on Marcialonga course. We stayed in a small pension run by very friendly Italian family. Few day later, Margaret and Bruce joined us. Snow cover was not great, but organisers guaranteed the race on full distance of 70 km. On Thursday, 3 days before the main race, I participated in a classical race - Lavaze Loppet. There I met my dear friends Jan Jasiewicz and Jan Marek.

After the race, an important meeting took place. Jan and I were approached by Hannes Larsson, who introduced us to his idea of Worldloppet skiers association. The idea was to provide equal chances to all skiers participating in Worldloppet races, to establish some quality standards for all races, and to pass skiers ideas and initiatives to Worldloppet Secretariat. In such a way, an International Association of WorldLoppet Skiers ( IAWLS ) was born.

Looking retrospectively. I can say, that many of IAWLS initiatives such as: online registration, credit card payments, wave start and others have been implemented. While IAWLS cannot take credit for these improvements as they were implemented independently by individual races, we can have satisfaction that our initiatives have been correct and our efforts not wasted. There is however one initiative, where IAWLS was the main contributor: swapping around dates of French and Estonian races. It saves skiers two return flights between European Alps and Scandinavia. We were lucky having Hannes Larsson in our ranks as he, being of Scandinavian origin and living in France, was best equipped for this type of negotiations. Additionally, his diplomatic and multilingual skills probably qualify him for a main chair in United Nations. Lucky we, that he choose skiing as his favourite activity.

Marcialonga.

Day before the race, somehow I felt joyous excitement, that it will be a wonderful race. It was reinforced during a Saturday mass. Priest predicted excellent weather -5C in the morning, around 0 at noon. I prepared my Lycra suit with kangaroos on the leg. In the morning, I dressed and left home without even looking at the thermometer. Outside I felt a sharp frost in my nose, but after a while we boarded the bus and were driven to the start. There I realised, that it was terribly cold, and over one hour waiting in the open area.

- Lech, why are you dressed so lightly? - Jan Marek looked at me with worry. There is -21C here and higher,in Canazei, even colder -27C.

What could I say? I found some shelter behind a corner, which protected from the strong wind. Together with few Japanese skiers we shared a sheet of cardboard and cuddled for the next hour. Start of the race did not improve my condition, I could not get warm. Specially during even small downhills I felt cold knife of frost cutting through my chest. I tried to cover chest with my hands but then pain in my hands was unbearable. I decided to withdraw at the first major drink station at Canazei. Fortunately, there was nobody to attend to my wishes as it was early stage of the race and very few people stopped there.

I drank 4 cups of tea, staffed lots of plastic bags under my suit. I tried to eat some biscuit but I could not bite into it. My lower jaw was completely numb. I crumbled biscuit in may hand and swallowed it. My hands... actually I completely forgot about them.

From then everything changed. I was getting warm, temperature was rising, it was becoming a joyful race. Finally Cavalese, 3 kilometres of sharp climb in narrow city streets. Spectators could see my badge with Australian flag - Forza Kanguro, forza!!. The street was so narrow, that nobody could pass me anyway. Finish! Great race.

I went to have some meal, pulled off the gloves and then I notices that I had black fingers. First thought was, that I stained them somewhere. After I ate few bowls of soup, I inspected them closer - there was no feeling whatsoever. I went to ambulance station.

- Take him to hospital - ordered some ski patroller. I froze seeing in my imagination 5 fingers chopped off.

- I am OK! - I protested. This is only superficial.

Italian female doctor approached us. Looked at my fingers.

- What? You skied without gloves?

- Of course I had gloves - I showed her.

- Yes, they are OK. So why you have frostbitten fingers?

- I have usually poor blood circulation in my fingers.

- OK, we will give you some aspirin. Aren't you allergic to aspirin?

- No, I take it every morning.

- Why do you take aspirin every morning?

- Because I had heart bypass just over a year ago and doctors advised me.

She burst in laughter and clapped her hands..

- Hello there - she shouted to a group of paramedics. Do you see this man? He is 60 years old, has poor blood circulation, had heart bypass year ago and came here from Australia to race Marcialonga.

- Bravo! We will save your hands.

In a minute I was laying on a bed and a paramedic on each side massaged my fingers in camphor oil. It lasted over 1 hour but I did not see any improvement. The doctor inspected my fingers.

- I think we cannot do anything to it, but it does not look that critical. Go home, keep them warm and if you notice any change go immediately to hospital.

I managed to watch the fireworks, caught the last bus home. At night, I could not sleep, my fingers got life in them, each of them was pulsating strongly. In the morning they looked as soiled potatoes.

We were visited by Diana Patterson, experienced Antarctic explorer. She advised that my fingers were recovering, I should pay attention not to cut or puncture skin as it might cause nasty infection. I bought warm oversized gloves and had a day of rest.

Next day, David and Jenny offered me lift to Dobiacco.There we had a couple of wonderful skiing days. Highlight was skiing on the unused railway line from Cortina to Dobiacco. We skied through tunnels and over bridges, surrounded by mountain peaks burning in the sun. With some regret we moved to Oberammergau. But each skiing location has its own attractions.

Oberammergau changed a lot since 1994. It grew into lively town with many facilities for visitors. And definitely there was no problem with finding a good restaurant.

Konig Ludwig Lauf.

We had few days of good skiing in charming terrain around Oberammergau.