At the Daily Skier we happened to believe that the best way of promoting skiing – is getting more people to watch it.
In that spirit the visit to the inaugural Galtür Nordic Night Race was organized. And here are the impressions
If you do it – do it right. Paznaun valley where Galtür is located, is one fancy place, seeing steady influx of well-heeled downhill skiers throughout the winter season. ( ” We don’t need to advertize or share profits with online booking systems – we are more than 85% full most of the time” opens up a proprietor of one of the Galtür hotels). How is it relevant to cross country skiing? Well, directly – to bring/lay the snow at the town center, to organize a proper, professional TV broadcast of the event and to offer some 8000 Euros in prize money – not every place even in the Alps could pull that out. Kudos to Galtür ! And a great example of how it’s organized right to the others.
Spectators had much to look at!
Applauding the local “city fathers” for their forward thinking. The XC skiing in on upswing – especially, when the winter arrives early like it did this season – more and more people want to have to chance to ski on narrow skis.
It’s not like Paznaun/Galtür ever lacked in quality “langlauf ski loipe”, but the buzz is simply not there – xcskiers flock to nearby Seefeld and Livigno, where you could ski on World Cup tracks – and rub shoulders with the pro-skiers. Who is not vain enough to drop casually that he was skiing alongside some national team guys today?. These things matter – not for all, but for many.
Speaking of the stars at the Galtür Nordic Night Race – with names like Maciej Starega ( 8th in sprint in Lahti-2017) and Paal Aune ( 8th at the Dresden WC city sprint) taking part, it certainly did not feel like a local event. Again, well done organizers – bringing elite skiers to your event is actually a lot more complicated than it sounds.
City sprints are much fun to watch. For their speed – and, dare we say, unpredictability? Just ask Irina Kovalenko, a Russian Cup winner who came to Galtür as favorite to win – but was scythed ( for the lack of better word) by an opponent in the finals. Sorry, Irina – it was unintentional, we are quite sure.
As is, recently crowned Austrian champ Lisa Unterweger and Norwegian international Paal Aune took home 1500 Euros each in prize money – and great memories, one hopes.
And you know what? Anybody – that is, any skier. literally – had a chance to test her/his prowess against Unterweger and Aune on the streets of the buculic Austrian town. And some did – to delight of the crowd and personal fun
Overall: very well done, Galtür – and we shall back for the next Nordic Night Race, in late March of 2019!
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