As usual, it's about end-January as I write this and looking at last year's report, one thing stands out - the huge amount of snow last year contrasts with the lack of it this time - and even now Austria still awaits a real dump. It would have been perverse if the real dumps at home had messed things up, but we were lucky - not to mention the threatened strike which could have been very awkward, albeit many had chosen cheaper Lufty proper tickets rather than BA standby, with its badly judged ski carriage charges.

So, for most of the Zell week, a lot of bussing was required, but the very cold temperatures (-18.4 C @ 2,000ms) let the cannons do good work, such that later in the week we were able to ski to the CityExpress gondola at the end of the day, rather than riding down to Schmitten, with the subsequent tedious wait for the bus to town. And the upper pistes were good - much better to ski there than travelling to the Kitzsteinhorn, for sure.

We were also fortunate that a FIS G/S was taking place on the Osthang Wednesday & Thursday, so the slopes on that side were opened up, and we benefited on the Friday with a higher and steeper start than usual for our own practice races, which was rather nice. Once again, it was a good week.

For the first time ever, Club Week had fewer folk than Warm-Up, for an assortment of fairly well documented reasons, albeit we were surprised at just how few came - 20 in the hotel to be exact, with John & Tina Cook joining the skiing from their lovely new apartment in town. The loss of economy of scale made the budget look very tight, and the numbers made the classes very broad in abilities, as indeed we had just 2 instructors for the first day. But thankfully the hotel kindly allowed a free space, which we were not quite entitled to, and, together with a big saving on running the races, we could just afford a 3rd instructor from Monday on. The race saving was achieved by not involving the local ski club - the ski school did it all, and very competently too.

The raffle/auction raised nearly £1,100 - a great result considering the numbers, thank you everybody, and this goes as usual to help finance the Disability Snowsport UK trip to France in March.

The hotel was much better this time around - and not just because our smaller number fitted in better. All in all, very few complaints came to our ears, and so we have reserved Alpina beds again for next year. I would urge many of you who voted with your feet this year to give it another try in 2011. Criticism of the area was a factor with some - the bus/train/cable-car start was mentioned, but the fact is, you do get a lot of altitude gain very quickly in the cable car, albeit not as comfortably as in a seated gondola. We had good instructors, (the 2 main ones we requested from last year), and the pistes were very well maintained - firm with some pretty hard patches, it's true, but this has been a challenging year for snow. Bad Hofgastein has more slopes at altitudes above the tree-line than many resorts, making poor light hard to deal with, but this could prove to be advantageous in a warmer year. The last day was spent skiing the Dorfgastein & Grossarl slopes as before, rounding off a nice week.

Scribes have written elsewhere in this letter about the weeks, so I will leave it there, except to mention that in case we were not satisfied again, some preliminary overtures were made to past resorts - e.g. the Hotel Royer in Schladming quote would have taken our package to £1,000 or more; the Christoph in Ellmau was competitive, but we still have doubts about the standard of instructors we could expect to get there, though they do say now the race slope could be up at the Hartkaiser.

Stick with it guys, the committee did a bit of hard work, and a bit of nail-biting - we need more numbers to be confident we can provide what we say we offer - and to feel that it is worth the effort at the end of the day.

PS. There were a few bumps during Club Week. Emma Perrin strained a medial knee ligament - the latest news is she is hobbling a bit, but it will be OK. Clive Catherall had a crash early in the week which left him with a broken wrist, and painful ribs, but will be OK. David Jones had a horrendous crash Thursday - up in the air, crash on his back & heels, then a-over-t off the piste down a rocky gully - a broken tail-bone is confirmed, together with a trapped neck nerve, which puts him out of action for the season, but he should still be able to cross-dress OK, and he did take part after lunch with this injury, coming second!

Click here for the Warm-up Week 2009 Photo Album

So here we are again, Zell am See warm up week. (or warm up week plus a couple of days for half of us!)

Thursday 10th - -15 early skiers arrived on 3 flights from London, bags arrived on several more, courtesy of Lufthansa. Not much snow around in Germany but it was raining very heavily, possibility of snow in the mountains?
Arrived in the resort to the usual warm welcome from everyone at the Lebzelter, including a welcome drink at dinner. Not much snow around the village.

Friday 11th - Skiing at Zell am See today, but the snow is rather limited - only Breiteckalm and Kapellenbahn lifts open, but some nice soft snow at the edges of the piste. Very pleasant day! A warm welcome and drink from Peter, at Breiteckalm.

Saturday 12th - Used Schmittenhohebahn today. It has new cabins, apparently designed by Porsche, no seats large windows, and would have been a great view if the windows hadn't been steamed up
A bit more of the resort open - including the new lift Kettingbahn - very exciting - 6 seater, heated seats and automated safety bar (have to hold your nerve as it lifts a second before you needed to stand). Another welcome drink at Breiteckalm.
Rest of the gang arrived and another welcome drink at the hotel.
Small ripple of excitement: Andy lost his room key. After exhaustive searching by the hotel staff it was found - exactly where he had left it, in the key deposit drawer.

Sunday 13th - Day started well: Gerda forgot her goggles, and had too buy new ones (well Graham actually bought them). Ian's boots did not fit his skis due to wear and tear, so he bought new ones.
Fritz's group went off piste, many falls, most involving digging to get out. Snow so heavy skis got sucked down and then stopped dead. Richard Leach took the prize for the most falls, Ian Prince and Paul take the prize for class swots - not falling at all.
There appears to be a photo circulating of me up to my neck in snow - must be a forgery.
Andy had a close encounter with a tree stump. It was too small to see above the snow, allegedly, but it still managed to dent his shin.
No news from the other classes...
Lots of damaged skis, not too serious so far, hope the snow holds up for the week!
Concert at the church was attended by a number of people.

Monday 14th - Very cold again maybe -14 on top.
Interesting day's skiing. Usual start for Fritz's group, into the soft stuff. Variation today was hitting the powder with no poles. Chaos as usual! After lunch another variation, Jack asked Fritz for the 'Arsch wackeln ubung'. The result was hilarious.
At lunch John told Peter at Breiteckalm that he was very disappointed to return after a 12 year absence and be served coffee with no chocolate. Peter took this feedback well and left. A couple of minutes later he returned with a few coffee biscuits, and a large bar of Milka, with the comment that as they hadn't served chocolate with coffee for 20 years this was to catch up. John shared the Milka with us: very nice!
Today an instructor, rumoured to be Marta, did a head plant while assessing a slope for her class to try. The calibre of her class was such that at least half emulated her feat! (always follow your instructor!).
Still no news from the other classes - what are they hiding?

Tuesday 15th - Sonnealm open!!!! Andy forgot gloves, luckily others had spares.
John managed to sweep his boots so enthusiastically on his way into lunch that the broom head shot off. (It happened to others too, but JG was the first!).
At last - news from another class - 'Jean, Hugh and Martin were rolling around in the deep snow' (anon. quote). Together?
oung racers from all over Europe at Sonnalm practicing GS, and so were we! Snow amazing, deep and soft. Plenty for everyone, and still good after lunch.
Sheila skis brilliantly through powder, so it was a great surprise when she did the best face-plant of the day! (or the week!).
City Xpress now open, so no need for the bus ride back from skiing.

Wednesday 16th - Andy forgot ski poles (bit of a recurring theme here?), luck was with him as he had time to dash back before the bus arrived.
International GS Racing on Sonnalm was interesting, so interesting to David and Hugh that they threw themselves at the feet of one of the coaches (hoping to take part?). Helped back to their feet to applause from the racers. We had another GS practice.
Interesting calender in the ladies loo at lunchtime, Mr August was the pick of the bunch.
John dressed as Penguin, chorus of 'oh look there is a penguin' from a class of English school children.
Paul left his rucksack on chair lift (I was asked to mention this as no other stories about PJ have yet emerged).
Drinks and cakes at Pfiff at top of Arietbahn, to celebrate BA Ski Club's 35 years in the Zell area, very nice. Helly provided a glimpse of the past with a 1974 newsletter. Helly and Gerda reminisced about the reasons for choosing Zell (Kaprun), which was to take advantage to the superior Austrian Ski School !!

Thursday 17th - Another cold day. GS Racers still on Sonnalm. John again dressed as a penguin, probably to keep warm
The Penguin destroyed a chair at Breiteckalm when the back 'fell' off, staff very calm about it, produced a new one, and tested it for strength before giving to the penguin.
Andy found a lone American, Matt, and brought him in for a drink. He thought as we worked for BA we must all be pilots. He is hoping to be a sports professor I hope he has a better understanding of sport than he does of airlines!.....aged 23, some suggestions he should pose for the calender - maybe Mr December?
Still no stories yet from Richard and Julia, they must have a pact not to tell tales!

Friday 18th - Race day - weather exceptional - sunny and cold. Not enough depth of snow for a special slalom, so 4 runs of giant slalom.
Generally all had good runs. A couple of fallers, and a special mention for Mike Mckeown who did an excellent run, having left one of his ski poles in the start …..
At lunch Fritz told us he was engaged to Mel - congratulations!!!!!
Dinner was an entertaining affair, more tales about Albert from Hugh, and Gaby led everyone singing christmas songs.
Very nice present from Peter and Karen, a glass decoration, delivered with a farewell drink and good wishes from Peter and the family.

Saturday 19th - Early breakfast, packing, load bus, set off.
Still time for more excitement - the bus driver's phone rings : we have taken someone's bag. Peter chasing us by car with owner of missing bag.
Apologies to John and Andy for the (rude) comments about how their bags came to be on our bus - the bag turned out to belong to a guest totally unconnected with the club!
Arrived in good time at Munich, loads of kisses before we all dispersed to various flights and trains.

Another fun week ended..

Excerpts from Viv Smith's Diary

Click here for the Warm-up Week 2009 Photo Album

Report by Jack Davidson.

Wow! What a week! Davy Jones almost killed himself, while Graham just tried to kill everyone else. Big Davy became airborne between gates, completed a backward somersault, and came to rest in a deep gully, whilst Graham was on a seek and destroy mission to eliminate anyone with new skis.

When we were not avoiding being wiped out by our illustrious chairman, we had a great time. The food was better than ever, the hotel staff could not have been nicer (I think they are getting used to our funny little ways), particularly during the fancy dress night when Rita (Cruella de Vil) kitted out both Guido (new boy )and Big Davy (gully boy) as a middle aged couple with clothes provided by the owner Hans and his wife. This included cardigan and pipe for Guido and the obligatory women's clothing for Davy. He even came up with a dog bowl for me (I was a Dalmatian dog called Bonko and not a sheep as one hotel guest thought). Everyone made an effort and the other guests entered into the spirit of the evening, dancing and doing the Conga with the rest of us. (I think they too are getting used to our funny little ways).

Snow conditions were good and the ski instructors, Patrick Jerry and Guernot hit us with the right mix of demonstrations, exercises, and feedback. All communicate well, to the point of telling jokes in English. (I think they are getting used to our funny little ways too).

John and Tina Cook joined us during the day and invited us round over several evenings to view their apartment and to enjoy their hospitality. What a lovely and spacious place it is, though if more people decide to come next year it's going to be a tight squeeze.

The Cookies also organised an ice curling evening. It was a hotly contested affair but the team calling themselves " the young ones " and comprising Davy Jones, David Finch and new girl Emma, triumphed after a bit of dodgy scoring (young Emma came with her Dad, Chris Perrin, who used to ski with the Ski Club a long time ago.

Raffle night was pretty amazing too. The evening ran quickly and smoothly. Lots of people contributed top prizes including flights with Bob Davy and Geoff Pike, lift passes for Zell etc. and with glamour girls Kate and Sandra selling tickets, and Graham and Gerda trying to outbid each other, an incredible amount of money (about £1100) was raised for Disability Snowsports UK. A big pat on the back is in order for everyone involved. Well done, campers.

Race day was, as usual, cold, windy, snowy, murky, and icy, and didn't last long. (a bit like most of my relationships ) . Emma won the GS, never having gone down a course before, then promptly fell over and strained her ligaments as we skied off for lunch .She was taken down the mountain in the blood wagon. Welcome to the Ski Club.

Clive had already sustained a broken wrist earlier in the week so he was around to entertain her in the bar. Our French Connection, Genevieve, clinched the overall result in the ladies race while Paul (Tina) Turner won the men's title. Davy Jones moaned about his injuries (big girl's blouse) but still managed to come second in the Special. It has since been confirmed that Davy has a broken tailbone (coccyx) so maybe the screams were justified. Trevor Plows fully justified his place in the top group by coming second overall.

A sunny fun filled day out at Dorfgastein completed the week's skiing .We had a little soirée in my room on the last night with drinks and nibbles, though we had to wait a while before someone showed up with the nibbles. Thank you Clive for that bag of crisps! Thanks to all the committee particularly Graham and Paul for all the hard work involved and thanks to my mate Andy Oliver for staying away so I could bag some bling !

Click here to display analysis of Members' performance by David Finch.

Richard was one of the very early members of the BEA Sliver Wing Club Ski Section, joining within a year of Peter Ross starting the Club in 1971.

Richard, the Sales and Reservations Manager in Terminal 1, had a dream of a Ski Racing Team for the airline, to compete alongside other airlines in the annual ASCA Championships. He sourced skiers from within BEA, not only London but throughout the network. The early teams famously included Hans Peter Knospe, Heidi de Wath, Ilsa Moser and our own Gerda Lucas from Germany, along with several other long forgotten names. Oesten Petterson and Elizabeth Graham came from Sweden and the still familiar face of Gisela Ackermann from Munich who became our Transport Manager, doing such sterling work whenever the Team were on the move.

Richard sourced trainers for the Team and the Training Week was started initially in September on the Kitzsteinhorn, later moving to Zell am See where the annual ski races were held in competition with Austrian Airlines; accommodation was at the then much smaller Schwebebahn Hotel adjacent to the Sonnenalm cable car.

Richard's job description was expanded to include BEA Special Facilities Officer and Manager of Executive Lounges; this enabled Richard to make many new contacts; consequentially his ski team benefitted. Rossignol Skis at one time sourced at enormous discount, and may even have been free, from no less a store than Lillywhites in Piccadilly Circus. One year Kneissl skis came also at small cost direct from the factory at Kufstein. Good contacts were one of Richard's specialities.

1975 saw the first of the American trips with the team competing in the IASF event at Alyeska Alaska. Richard arranged flights on TWA and North West Orient where we were treated to first class travel. Richard was a hard Team Manager insisting on not only heavy training sessions but also team behaviour socially. In Alyeska we were all instructed to wear our airline T-shirts in the evenings and stay together. This ruling however paid dividends as on the final evening prize giving, a huge event with several hundred present, the Team Trophy was awarded to the "funny speakers" who had travelled a long way.

>Richard expected this to be Qantas as we didn't speak funny but it was BEA and Richard's acceptance speech in his cultured, perfect English accent brought a standing ovation from the Americans.

There are many memorable events, an introduction to the NAASF competitions, the trip to Snowmass, a then new resort adjacent to Aspen, all with Richard's Ski Team in the 1970s.

Back home a highlight of Richard's BEA career was being chosen to accompany The Queen when she opened Terminal 1 (17 Apr.1969), a duty which he admitted made him very nervous. Overseeing all VIP travel he was involved with the Royal Opera House and the Royal Ballet, which is where his interest took him after his time with the airline finished, he had many friends and acquaintances from the world of art, particularly opera and ballet.

Richard last skied in 2006 along with Paul Spencer, Simon Cubbage and Rudi Leper who, in the 70s, was the Austrian Airlines Team Manager. Richard had lost none of his style on the slopes. Richard and Rudi enjoyed reminiscing about events of thirty years earlier; sadly Rudi died last year after a long illness.

Richard passed away peacefully at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Windsor on 22nd January whilst the British Airways skiers were collecting their racing medals at the end of the Club Week in BadHofgastein. Without Richard perhaps none of this would have happened; as we say good-bye we also say - thank you Richard for all you did for the Club.

Barbara Morris.
Photos also supplied by Barbara & Gerda.

L - R: Bella Robinson, Carol Blackwood, Keith Reece, Richard Bayliss, Alex Fritscher, Gerda Schlee (Lucas!), Peter Dupont, Chris Cowell, Charles Royce, Paul Hutton.

A big thanks to all who have made contributions to this Newsletter. Any articles or reports that might interest our readers will always be appreciated.

Jean Scripps