I have been thinking for a long time whether to write this blog at all and how to write it so that I do not forget anyone, do not offend anyone and especially do not bore you, since you already know everything about the saint. Especially Martin Kupčo jr. he tells me that Eliška Pračová from Jojka already has all the information and knows exactly how many kilometers of networks, how many tons of material and how many hectoliters of schnapps were drunk and why Peta really fell... So why write it again when these 100 + 1 interesting things are already definitely written down somewhere. So I thought that I would actually write it just for myself as a memory that might never happen again. And actually, it's also a way of thanking the people whose path I crossed many years ago, and even today, when we sometimes meet, they are exactly the same Liptacians as they were then.
In the ancient past, when Peta was very young and the guys around Martin Kupč sr., who scored goals for her at the Easter egg in Liptovský Ján, were 20 years younger, then no one would have thought that one day they would score goals for Peter the Great and that at an event of such rank as the Alpine Skiing World Cup. In those days, when I still didn't know how to fully enjoy 8 beers and 8 and a half pints of pine during the day, I first smelled the goal sticking into the slope at the brigade in the Jánský ski service. Help was needed, I helped. It was in the days when men were men and could drink fire water for three days and return home only when the moon reached full moon. Today, no woman will tolerate such a thing, Indians were really different players back then. Those were the times when I learned so much wisdom about life than ever before, only in the morning no one remembered. Whose hand Paľo Šúlek held in the evening after the race, and his son Mišo held his other hand, knows exactly what I'm talking about.
The group around the Kupčovci grew. There were legends like Mr. Pawiel, Blonďák, Mitkaj in it, and mainly the races were increasing. To this day, I will never forget one incident that happened on the 7th in Jasná one beautiful evening. We did some races, the European Cup I think, but a tremendous gale raged in Jasná, the kind that can only happen here. Maroš Kupčo sr. he needed one strong and simple and with him one experienced fighter. We were supposed to go after dark to secure the nets, or something like that, but after dark, on that ice, in that wind and with that weight... I say to myself - dude, we're definitely going to die here today! Mitkaj stopped me at the barrier where we hid /he was the fighter/ that we were going to rest and he completely hid in his cloak. I didn't understand what he was doing. He lit a cigarette inside his jacket and told me the story of how he survived the most terrible storm of his life in the mountains in 73. He gave it all to me in his unmistakable serious-Poruba accent, I laughed like never before, he finished smoking and we went to do what we came for. I feel like after a quarter of a century, I haven't seen him smoke during the week, and I certainly didn't even see him during that January weekend. But I can recall him there in my mind at any time.
Years and races increased, the company grew and became more professional, and I left this train because of my duties and the story. Meanwhile, larger and larger events began to take place in Jasná, which always exceeded expectations. The guys started doing regular world cups in Špindlerův Mlýn, or Zagreb, Croatia, and of course already two editions at home in Jasná.
The year 2023 came and we knew that Peta would be at home for the last time. I'm 20 years older, I say to myself, because this group might be the last. I'm calling Miša Mrázik to see if they are hiring people like me in technology. The answer was that there is always a place for old fighters. I tell him to let me think over the weekend. I might be able to in a week, definitely not in two 🙂 and I'll let you know. Because once you say yes, you already know that you won't have an easy week. My "second father" Mr. Pawiel calls me in an hour. More than one solo book could be written about Mr. Pawiel, but it's better to experience something with him once than to hear about it five times. I immediately got a brush, as he usually does out of love... so why don't I call him when I want to go to the technical department? I wanted to explain to him that I'm just thinking about it, it's still theoretical-hypothetical... But I didn't have time. He already decided that for me. Supposedly so that I don't have a hard time...
Mr. Pawiel has a gift like no other. There are people who do rather than think. Then there are those who think for a long time before they act. Or until the third, neither one nor the other. He always manages to do both of these things in the meta space, somewhere before. Before you even start to think, he is already painting the gazebo with bleach.
The worst thing that can happen to you when working with him is that you actually can't keep up with him. In short, you are damned. But when you chase him, you will laugh like never before in your life and this guy will never say no to you and when he knows, he will always help. It was confirmed and time was running.
Starost
Whenever your phone rings from the mayor of Závažna Poruba, Vlad Mlynček, you know that it will be brief, clear and quite to the point. I remember one time that I even ordered him to delete my number from his phone. Of course I was serious and he thought I was joking, so he didn't delete. He started gently, slowly, as only he knows how. At 5:30 in the morning, the cable car goes, he began. That's exactly why I wanted to think about it a bit. Is such a week worth it? Why don't I go there on the weekend to have fun like everyone else? No, I go at 5:30 in the morning at -12 to spray some water on the slope for the babies to lick. It was blowing classically in Chopok, the temperature according to meteoblue was minus 27, water splashes all over you, which immediately freezes on you. The mayor spoke. Today, gentlemen, we are going for 10 centimeters. We look at each other, at him, at the length of the track, at the ice pipe, from which, under 10 bars, water is fucking everywhere. I swallowed and wanted Mitkaj's Marska, let me get mentally organized. It was really a beautiful day and beautiful psychohygiene. If you've been under stress for a long time, a day like this will show you beautifully that it can be worse J. To clear your head, preparing the slopes is a wonderful activity. You freeze, you start to hate it, you wonder why the machine hasn't done it for a long time, why you're here and moving by centimeters. Pure delusion, but your brain will thank you in the end. The track was in heavy traffic, 40 people took turns on it, who were replaced by another 40 and worked until late at night. Indeed, I have often asked why we do this to ourselves? But we Slovaks are already like that. Just proud and stubborn guys from Liptov, what do they think we will do even if Igor doesn't get the subsidy. That's just how it is. And so it was.
Chapter Movers
When it freezes, phase two follows. The movers got to speak. The slope looks roughly like a field after winter sowing, only completely frozen to the bone. The task of the movers is to tear the track completely onto smooth ice. Always follow one simple rule here – you don't have short hard skis and hard ski boots and you like your hip joints, so go forest, run! And I was running... It's a fact that in my Skialpa slippers it was pure murder. Hats off to all movers who survived this without injury or illness. It is driven in large formations, at high speed, so that the track is perfect and goes round and round. Snow and ice are being removed, as no machine will be able to enter the track. This is done because in this way gravity will help the snow with its momentum, and as the mound is packed, it must not stop and will roll nicely to the sides. So during this work it was important that there were no gaps, which was extremely physically demanding. Paradoxically, as the race approached, they were calmer, but they were really devastated.
The day it rained all day
This is also what life is about, and the rain started watering our hard work. On Saturday, when Peta dropped out, everyone was looking for someone to blame. Who is to blame, why was it like that and why was the track the way it was. I wonder why they didn't see Mr. Pawiel on TV JOJ? After all, he is to blame, as clear as a slap in the face! And even the Croatian trainer Pedro from our warehouse had a hand in it. Maybe people just forget that it's just a sport and sometimes things just happen. My personal feeling, when I stepped on the track at six in the morning on Saturday with "freshly sharpened" skis, which I took rather from my father, was, "dpči. I will kill myself here today”. Or at least I'll be on Eurosport in an edit of some New Year's program. My skialp superlights could not be pulled down, let alone work in them on such ice. However, no one knew that even a master carpenter cuts himself and has a slightly different grinding wheel on his machine. That day we were all a bit like soapy lightning, and actually Peta was too. In short, to be safe for female racers, the track must be as it was. Maybe the April rain didn't have to water her, but history doesn't ask about that anymore. Peta reached the ninth or so gate and you already know the rest.
What you don't know is that we had an army for this whole thing and I'll tell you why. Every morning when the cable car left at around 5:30, there were fewer and fewer of us. The guys lived in hotels and cottages around Lúčok, and I only know from talking that it was like a military hospital there. That at night, when one walked through the Ski Hotel, one only heard moaning and coughing. And then he came to the section where the kerosene flowed and played rock and roll. There were the stronger pieces. 🙂
I prudently did not use this opportunity, I say to myself, you are of your age, this is not really for you anymore. I did well, my roommate and many others were put to bed by Thursday's rain and it was good to stay asleep, sober and rested. To be honest, I have never experienced such a technique where so little alcohol was consumed! The unwritten rule is that no alcohol, but even hunters are said to be abstinent.
On this track, however, the concentration had to be 100%, especially when building the track, where everyone knows exactly what to do, what to take, to whom to give. And paradoxically, the technicians move slowly on their skis, as they are still forging something. So when you're sliding along the track at some speed, you'll keep your balance sooner than when you're spinning, turning, drilling, turning, etc. on it.
Deflection sector
My favorite. The mayor tells me, you will serve a paraoche (Mišo Červeň). Not many people know, but this guy has the gold from Beijing from the Paralympic Games. Be amazed at the world and they will let him and us healthy into technology. I say to myself, ok, Mišo is a Paralympian, he can handle it, I hope I will survive it. Anyone else familiar with it knows that it breaks steeply down there, steeply down where even a mountain of rainwater flew on Thursday. I only got pissed off in thermal liners and I thought twice about every move, because here, if you screw up, you'll only stop in the VIP tribune. Paraorech bounced there with his torn ligaments in his knee as if a meter of dust had fallen. Bastard, he must have sharpened his file in the evening, or he knows how to ski damn well. The fact is that I only missed one gate before the finish, where it was really sliding like crazy, and I was glad that it was behind me. To my surprise, after the lap, as the top layer wore off, the conditions improved. But yes, modern skiing takes place on such a surface today. I also thought for a while that those babies are not completely normal, but it's just their sport.
Sunday - packing
I don't know how many kilometers of those networks there were, plus tons of mattresses and banners and everything possible. Well, the logistics graduation, but I have to say that it is obvious that it was not done for the first time. It really went great. But you still have enough, you want to go home, to your mother's for soup, or something like that. But you pack and pack, and tons of material are loaded onto trucks that move this circus to the next country. You're grinding from the last one, but you look next to it and there's a guy also grinding from the last one, and next to him another and another. Suddenly there are a hundred of those guys again, so you just go, but you want to go away and take off your ski boots, where after a week your little toe is pushing you somewhere in the ass.
On Sunday evening, when I skied the White Pilgrimage, on the one hand I had rather mixed feelings that there was so much work and Jasná was already empty. On the other hand, I had such a good feeling that maybe I could be there for the last time. That I saw a lot of familiar faces and I really remembered those I hadn't seen during the week. It really is such a group of enthusiasts. And if someone asks me if I'll go again, I'll go again and I'll be happy, but Kupčovci, Mraziak, Pawiel, Starosta, Paraorech and others have to put it together and organize all this.
It was great! Hi.
