Hurtling Down the Ice

He is afraid. That is part of the appeal. He enjoys pushing himself to the nervous edge. As he lumbers toward the starting line his mouth is as dry as the crisp mountain air.

It’s his turn. The secretary in the clubhouse tower, after making sure the run is clear, signals him to start.

He places the heavy sled on the icy snow and rocks it back and forth in his own personal rhythm. One, two, three, four!

He takes a few running steps and then flops prone onto the sled and glides, momentum steadily building. Across the starting line he triggers an electronic timer that will clock him at speeds of almost 90 m.p.h. as he hurtles face-first down the mountain, twisting through the treacherous chute of ice called the Cresta Run.

The run, rebuilt each year from century-old plans, winds for three-fourths of a mile down Cresta Valley, dropping a dizzying 514 feet along the way.

It is owned and operated by the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club, an international sporting group with a membership roster that reads like a jet set “who’s who.”

A handful of Americans make the annual pilgrimage to St. Moritz for the high season of the Cresta in January or February. One is Boston businessman John Sharrigan.

“I used to be an auto racer on the drag and sports car circuits,” Sharrigan said. “I used to think that was the ultimate sport, but then I discovered the Cresta. It’s like compressing all the challenge of a sports car race into less than a minute.

“It’s like riding a roller coaster with your face just inches from the track. There’s absolutely no experience like it.”

Said another racer: “Riding the Cresta is like what flying ought to be, but isn’t.”

Some consider the Cresta Run to be the last of the truly great amateur adventure sports. It began as a diversion for tubercular British invalids who were convalescing in the Alpine air of St. Moritz.

The run’s first route was an old post road, and the first sleds were improvised from the Swiss schlitten, small wooden utility sleds with flat iron runners that were used for winter transport.

Soon the British sledders sought more excitement. In 1884 they commissioned Peter Bonorand, a Swiss geometrician, to design a course.

The result was the Cresta Run, carefully calculated by Bonorand to take full advantage of winding Cresta Valley, giving the sledders an exhilarating rush through steeply banked turns and down plummeting straights.

The course today is essentially unchanged from the run designed by Bonorand. It has no permanent structure and is built from soft snow. It’s iced over each December.

The course winds through 10 turns, including the notorious Shuttlecock, which acts as a safety valve by ejecting out-of-control riders over its steep banks before they plunge into the steepest and fastest parts of the course.

The privilege of wearing a special Shuttlecock tie and attending the annual Shuttlecock dinner “roast” is bestowed on anyone who has survived the experience of missing the turn at Shuttlecock and catapulting inelegantly over the bank.

At the genteel St. Moritz Tobogganing Club, plummeting out is called “leaving the course.”

Protective gear worn by riders includes special shoes equipped with either runners for the experts or “rakes,” jagged claws of metal designed to dig into the ice and slow the rate of descent for the cautious.

Riders also wear helmet, goggles, knee and elbow pads, and special armored gloves. Minor injuries are common.

Racers talk of the “Cresta Kiss,” an endearing term for the torn skin and stinging bruises suffered to any part of the body that comes in contact with the icy surface of the run.

A Cresta sled, called a skeleton, has a sliding seat that the rider moves forward and back to change his center of gravity and increase or decrease his rate of acceleration.

Sled design is unregulated, except that club rules prohibit any brakes or steering device.

Riders exert what little control they can by making changes in hand and body position, and by making use of the runners or rakes on their shoes. Racers often bolt lead weights to the undercarriages of their skeletons to increase velocity.

Any man may join the elite fraternity of Cresta riders as a guest of the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club. Women aren’t allowed to race, supposedly because of concern for their safety.

To earn a place on the club’s supplemental list of nonmember racers you must be male, past the age of consent and mildly insane. Ask at the clubhouse in St. Moritz or at the Sunny Bar in the Kulm Hotel.

A fee of 240 Swiss francs (about $120 U.S.) entitles you to five runs. You’ll receive instruction, the use of club gear and the opportunity to experience the ultimate thrill.

For more information contact Swiss National Tourist Office, 25o Stockton St., San Francisco 94108.