SUVRETTA SNOWSPORTS GUESTS FAMILY RITBLAT
TEXT: BLUES/SIR JOHN RITBLAT | PHOTO: DANIEL MARTINEK
SUVRETTA GUESTS WHO HAVE BEEN COMING FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS
Sir John Ritblat with his son Jamie to the left and son Nick to the right
The Ritblat family has “not only been skiing” in St. Moritz for many years but Sir John Ritblat is also the President of British Ski & Snowboard and has been for more than 35 years throughout its different incarnations. With his various “hats”, he has also been the sponsor of The British National Ski Championships for the same length of time. Happily Delancey, which is run by son Jamie, is currently the principal sponsor of British Ski and Snowboard across all four disciplines, namely alpine, cross country, freestyle and snowboard and including the Delancey British National Ski Championships.
Dear Claudi!
without, is more than 50 years Suvretta. The answer have been coming to are of Herr Jacob, who I rs ries yea mo ny me t ma lies how ear You asked me than once a year. My with no edges, waxing r and sometimes more laces and wooden skis I think, missing a yea ing leather boots with nag ma m, Roo Ski was in charge of the ld be summoned to in the boot room. school age. They wou furiously with his team some seemed boys of h en, take them off oug tok alth e n, sam me the ng you , by The “boot boys” were ld lace up the boots and wou y e, but there was the wer re re whe the g many mornin remember exactly how the guest rooms every end of the day. I cannot the at skis the with ing together tmakers were someth a hit and miss and boo certainly a lot of them. te paragraph. The fit was week to take measureara a sep e a onc es e erv com des to ts d The story of boo is still there, use r. Even then the leather Hierling from Davos, who boots seven days late like national heroes. Mr back with the finished e School for many years com n Ski the the of and d ts hea been ments, make the boo Friedli Wyss, who has to m the lend le. to d rab use I ably wea had to be so stiff that that they were reason n the leather ay, to break them in so freeze, particularly whe and is still my friend tod se days and feet would tho massaged in be to cold y had ver s toe was t it it as meant tha This was not the end of er waterproof, which long no and n wor old and boots became slightly tracks hazard. e also freezing and the a normal and common es. The T-Bar lifts wer back to life; frostbite was by volunteers from the n re were no piste machin the dow but ped ay stam tod be able It is unimagin . The pistes had to arted; even the most with a high casualty rate n was not for the faint-he were icy and irregular rywhere and going dow eve ice was re the s, village. On sunny day n than now. But think twice. I have to say, rather the intrepid skiers had to in and again although, ple, including aga k peo 20 bac e ut abo com to lling d ipe tota Nevertheless, we survive sing of our family équ bles the is re the r, eve how we were young! Today, ndchildren. my children and 11 gra Kind regards John Ritblat BLUES MAGAZIN 61