Skiing and sledging 

About skiing and sledging at home in our New House

Our place was almost 900 m high, we had a long, harsh winter. There was a lot of snow, so we boys and girls were more or less good skiers. You could strap on your boards and ski down from the front door.

Most of the time we skied down the "Alosiberg", a short, steep slope on which a "jump hill" was also built, and many an inexperienced skier slid down on the seat of his trousers at first. There was a long downhill run starting from the "Mühlacker" down to the road, where you had to push hard if the snow was not so good. There was also good skiing from the "Pauschhaus" down into the valley. Here, winter sports enthusiasts from Saxony, who were staying with us at the time, had already marked out their own little slalom course.

The most difficult downhill run was at "Kannerseffen-Berg". The big jumping hill was built there and the most daring ones even practised long jumping. In the valley, you had to brake well so as not to land in the Rohlaubach stream. Sometimes the stream was frozen over and covered with snow, so that you could drive over it and back up the other side.

A forest hike on a bright full moon night was also wonderful. The snow and the snow-covered spruces just glistened. There was a silence in the forest and a very soft ringing in the ears. On such an evening, we boys once skied over the firewood trail to feed the deer in the "Saifenloch" in the so-called 3rd forest. The deer at the feeding place were standing up to their bellies in deep fresh snow, and we could have touched the frightened animals while standing on our skis. Because the forest hunter followed our tracks all the way to the houses the next day, we were given a real lecture at school, and told not to do it again.

Most of the time the children went tobogganing on the Wohnerberg, where the ride went over the road and down the Christofbergle. You had to be careful that no cars came along because the view of the road was obscured by the school building.

Once you were able to walk "ubnwag", i.e. when the snow had settled and frozen so firmly that you didn't collapse while walking, it sometimes happened that men also fetched a large sledge from the shed and drove it down the long meadow slope from the Schwabhaus to the Wolfergasthaus.

So the winter was a good time for us and when I meet old colleagues here in my new home, I have to agree with them when they say: "We have settled in quite well here, but we can never really ski.


Ernst Ullmann