WINTER SPORTS
‘Crazy’ adrenaline-seekers become first women to race Cresta Run in 90 years
Geoffrey Dean meets India Ford, who was the first woman to tackle the Run after a ban was lifted
Women were banned from racing down the Cresta Run from 1929 until Ford became the first this winter. Here, she almost crashes out of Shuttlecock Corner
The Times, January 23 2019, 12:00pm
A dozen women have so far taken the opportunity to ride the Cresta Run this season, after a 90-year-old ban on them from racing was lifted by the St Moritz Tobogganing Club last summer. The very first female down the Run this winter was India Ford, a 19-year-old Australian student from the University of Edinburgh, who admits that her friends think she is “crazy” to attempt it. Remarkably, she was followed down early in the new year not only by her three sisters but also by her mother.
The concept of the Cresta Run, which was first built over the winter of 1884-5, was dreamt up by five perennial British guests at the neighbouring Kulm Hotel, who formed its splendidly-named “outdoor amusements committee”. Indeed, the link between the Kulm and the Cresta remains particularly strong, with the prize-giving for all 30 or so races down it every season being conducted in the hotel’s celebrated Sunny Bar. The Run is built from scratch every December using the natural contours of the Engadine Valley and earth banks to provide a framework on which to pile snow, which becomes ice.
Women were permitted to race until 1929 when, citing injury concerns and fears it could lead to breast cancer, they were banned. That was undermined when the women’s skeleton event was brought in at the 2002 Winter Olympics. With other male-only sports clubs such as cricket’s Marylebone Cricket Club and golf’s Royal & Ancient electing to allow women in, the St Moritz Tobogganing Club decided to follow suit at an emergency general meeting last July when two thirds of the membership voted in favour of their inclusion.
Riders can reach speeds of up to 70mph
Previously, women were allowed down the Run only on the final day of the season in early March. Ford, whose Sydney-based father Simon has ridden the Cresta Run for more than 20 years, did her first ride in March and hooked by the experience, landed a holiday job at the club’s shop so that she could ride from the start of this season.
“It’s such a different experience — unlike any other sport,” she said. “You’re just holding on tight in the first ride, trying not to fall off and just make it to the bottom.”
That is about 900m away at the end of a five-foot wide, walled-in stretch of ice that includes a famous 90-degree bend named Shuttlecock Corner. There are other sharp turns in the steeper, upper part of the Run, which adds another 300m to it but which is tackled only by advanced riders. As yet, no women have qualified to ride from this summit of the Run, known simply as ‘Top”.
For novices like India Ford, it is quite enough of a challenge to start their ride from two-thirds of the way down the Run by Junction Hut. “One day, I’d love to go from Top as it just looks the biggest thrill,” she said. “But starting at Junction is hard enough. After the fear-of-the-unknown first ride, you enjoy it by the third one when you’ve stopped bumping into the sides. I’ve skied all my life, and you get the same kind of thrill and adrenaline-rush as skiing down the scariest black run.
“I find the best way to explain it to friends is that you’re lying face-first on a flat toboggan pointing down a bob run. People sort of understand that but they don’t understand why you would do that. The exception was a team of four girls from Oxford Brookes, who came out to ride before Christmas and got so into it, although their times weren’t that fast.”
How, though, have her times been? “I’ve done a 61 [seconds] but one of my sisters did a 59,” she said. “I want to crack 60 and get round Shuttlecock Corner cleanly,” she admitted. She has yet to come out in Shuttlecock, no mean achievement after 18 rides, although she came perilously close to doing so last week when half her body was hanging over the lip before she managed to haul herself back onto her toboggan.
“I’ve not done a good Shuttlecock,” she admitted. “I’m not steering hard enough around it, and so I’m ending up too high at the end and I come back crashing in [against the iced wall opposite]. I had quite a few bruises on the legs in the first week and on the hands. It’s tricky to ride with swollen-up hands but it’s worth it all for sure. You start not to care so much about bruises, and the thing I love about the Cresta is that everyone is trying to help you and teach you what to do.”
The Ford family were among the first women to race the Cresta Run since the ban was liftedThe Ford family were among the first women to race the Cresta Run since the ban was lifted
Ford has received good advice from three women who have set times at which the quicker men would not scoff. Michaela Pitsch, a German, is the fastest female with a time of 44.51 seconds, while Kinny Evans is comfortably the best British lady with a 45.69. These times would mean they hit speeds of more than 70 mph near the end. Karen Kuhn, a Swiss, completes a triumvirate of fast women whom the SMTC secretary, Gary Lowe, believes could qualify to ride from Top before the end of this season.
“We will let the ladies go from Top, but treat them no differently to the men,” Lowe told The Times. “They must do consistent 48-second rides from Junction on a toboggan or 46s on the quicker flat-top skeletons. Equally important is how effectively they rake, as they must do that well to slow down sufficiently. That is all about strength, and I suspect those top three are strong enough.”
Lowe revealed that, next week, the inter-services race between the Army, Royal Navy and RAF will feature two women in each team. The same event last year saw women race — and acquit themselves very well — as part of a trial ahead of the SMTC’s EGM when two-thirds of the membership voted in favour of female inclusion.
“Having the ladies riding has gone very well so far,” Lowe concluded. “After the inter-services, there won’t be races open to them until the last week of the season, but they can have practice rides every day time-permitting. They will be very warmly welcomed.”
● Geoffrey Dean was a guest of the Kulm Hotel; he flew to Zurich on Swiss International Airlines and travelled by train to St Moritz on a Swiss Travel Pass