VAL GARDENA MAGAZINE
HOW IT ALL BEGAN…
T
his year marks an important anniversary for Val Gardena, and one that that cannot go uncelebrated - not just because, in jubilee style, it is a good round figure, but also because it commemorates an event which had an immense impact on the tourism development of this area: It’s the 50th anniversary of the 1970 World Ski Championships. The event wrote a glorious page in the history of Val Gardena and was pivotal in the expansion of tourism which, until that date, had been dependent upon outdated, rudimentary infrastructure.
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Gardena man Erich Demetz, of the World Championship Organising Committee, confirms: “Before the World Cup in 1970, the summit of the Ciampinëi, from where most of the principal ski slopes of the valley branch off today, was only accessible on foot. Traditional hotels like the historic Oswald hotel in Selva would close down in January due to the complete absence of bookings and, in the same period, the ski instructors occupied their time transporting hay and wood from meadows and woods on elementary wooden sledges. The rare international telephone call had to be booked through a switch-
board, and you had to wait for hours to get a connection. The few ski lifts belonged to different companies or family businesses, and tickets had to be bought on a per-ride basis. A general ski pass system was beyond all imaginings and the parochial outlook made a joint tourism promotion scheme between the three towns of the valley (Ortisei, S. Cristina and Selva) all but inconceivable.” (Maurizio Ferrandi “Quando tutto incominciò). Be that as it may, a small group of tourism and sports operators - with Erich Demetz, Tschucky Kerschbaumer and Edmund Dellago at the helm - embarked on a long, hard
