Friday 01/15/2010
Lutz Binzer opened the musher meeting at 7 p.m. and greeted all participants and staff. Unfortunately, two mushers had cancelled their entry. We got a SMS from Olav Krummrich that he is laying in the hospital, but we don’t know what he’s in for. We hope that it isn’t anything serious and hope that he gets well soon. The Spaniard, Llombart Puga Ferran was already at the stake-out in Lü when he got a telephone call from home and had to leave for home right away. Two days before the race we got a cancellation from the rookie Edi Gehrke and from Siegbert Zertani because of illness. By the Ulrichs there was a change in entry. Sylvia started instead of her husband, Alfred, which turned out to be a good decision after all. Oliver Kurpas entered from the 6-dog class into the 8-dog class.

Saturday, 01/16/2010
The weather couldn’t be better today at the start of the Alpen-Trail 2010. One could admire the new start arch from Royal-Canin. The wonderful trail passed the Alpe Champatsch (2136m) over to S-charl. The return from S-charl, some parts of the trail had holes, because of some of the mushers have used their crawl brakes in the soft snow in the steep areas. The first to arrive in S-charl was Sylvia Ulrich from Schnelldorf, Germany. She was in total time 9 minutes faster than Thorsten Ballas. Third was Erwin Föger from Obsteig, Austria. Heini Winter from Augsburg, Germany won in the 8-dog class followed by the veterans Uli Kuhn, Volkmar Stuber, Leo Link und Gerhard Offer. Uli Kuhn gave himself a birthday gift by coming in second place. Happy Birthday Uli. Unfortunately, Nicole Vogel crashed coming down a steep area of the trail and pulled a muscle in her arm.

After the race some people took advantage of the good weather and went to the tent at the start. The attraction there was a chain saw artist, Sepp Heinisch from Latsch in Vinschgau, South Tyrol. He craved from tree stump a beautiful husky which will be auctioned off this evening in the tent after the musher dinner.  

Sunday, 01/17/2010
Since they forecasted a bad weather front for Sunday, the race was started one our earlier, but the weather didn’t turn out bad after all and we even had some sunshine. Many of the leading mushers had a birthday cheer to Uli Kuhn’s birthday the night  before. The race started at 9 a.m.. The additional loop wasn’t driven today. The light snow made the trail difficult to drive. The was no big changes to the result list from the previous day. Helmut Peer had some difficulties with one of his dogs and had to load him in the sled. Fortunately, he will stay in the race and surely will stand on winner’s podium. The winner of the day went to Heini Winter and Sylvia Ulrich. In the evening most of the staff made there way to Guesthouse Brückele in Prags. Johannes Kronbach was there since Saturday and made an excellent 60 km trail.

Monday 01/18/2010
This morning the trail bosses left to mark the trail. I planned to sit together with the photographer Martin Hanselle to add photos in the internet. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the time to do it. Klaus Czeranna and I got the order to have the skidoo repaired after the shock absorber broke in Lü. The chaos began when the trailer was hitched to Johannes Kronbach’s car. The blinker didn’t work any longer. Then during the drive to Lienz in East Tyrol, the wipers didn’t work. Then after we parked the car to clean the wind shield, the car didn’t start. We had to call the Mercedes car service to come and start the car. After a good two hours we could finally bring the skidoo to the garage to have it repaired, but as we got there they were closed for lunch. After a nice walk through the industrial area of Lienz, we could finally pick up the skidoo at 6 o’clock in the evening and drive back to Prags. Therefore we ask you for your patience with the photos.

Tuesday 01/19/2010
The trail was 58km and 1940 total elevation. The first part of the trail had its challenges. You needed good lead dogs to get through this first part. Parts of the trail had head-on-passing which additional made it more challenging. Right at the start of the race, Manuela Walter cross the road in the direction of Pragser Wildsee, but Antje Röbbecke guided the team in the right direction. The Swiss Luzi Bernhard had a good day. He was third in the 6-dog class. First was Sylvia Ulrich followed by Thorsten Ballas. In the 8-dog class Volkmar Stuber was first followed by Heini Winter and Uli Kuhn. Between Volkmar Stuber and Uli Kuhn there is only a 15 second difference in the total ranking. With the Nordic breed teams (see NB in the result list), Jürgen Stolz from Penzing, Germany is in the lead followed by the Swiss René Weber and the athletic Italian Matteo Bartolini in total ranking. However today, René was first followed by Matteo and Jürgen.

Wednesday 01/20/2010
Normally the first loop after the start wasn’t supposed to be driven, but it looked like that Gregor von Gumppenberg liked it so much that he drove it again. In the beginning Volkmar Stuber’s team didn’t seem to do so good, however he placed second after Heini Winter. Heini is currently in the lead by 13:34 minutes. Helmut Peer should have been long on the winners podium and he finally made to third place which shows he can drive with the best. There’s only a 14 second difference with Volkmar Stuber. The Swiss Nicole Vogel is finally showing her best side as well. Again another excellent time for the organizer Lutz Binzer. He could hold Uli Kuhn at bay.
In the 6-dog class, Sylva Ulrich was again first followed by Thorsten Ballas and third today was Erwin Föger. Luzi Bernhard was somewhat slower, however in the total time it looks pretty close. Luzi has 9:37:22 total time and Erwin has 9:38:33 total time. The Frenchman Farcy Ludovic had some problems with one of his dogs and had to load him in the sled. The dog didn’t want to stay in the sled and howled the whole time. That’s why he got a warning from the race marshal Aad Hekkers. The Czech Pavel Janovsky forgot his start number bib and got a warning as well. Early this morning Jürgen Stolz left for home, because his lead dog got ill. Therefore the Swiss René Weber lead the race for the Nordic breeds. Although the snowmobile was in for service all day on Monday, it didn’t run again. Johannes Kronbach found the problem and now it’s running again.

It was another beautiful sunny cold day. The weather and trail couldn’t of been better. Even the dogs ran well. The vet. Dr. Dagmar Kriegler was very satisfied with the condition of the four-legged athletes. Now, we are ready for Sexten. The night race will begin at 5 p.m. tomorrow.

Thursday 01/21/2010
After a long time there is a night stage in Sexten, again. As a musher you either love or hate it. Nothing spectacular happen to night. The relative short trail which went through and around the town had to cross a couple of cross-country skiing trails which made it difficult to drive at night. Everyone had his own tactic. Volkmar Stuber put only in four dogs in his team to spare most of his dogs for the next day. His wife Nicole had a chance to put in her pet dog in the team and of course the dog enjoyed running this special stage. The winner of the day was Gregor von Gumppenberg followed by Charly Franch and Gerhard Offer. The Swiss Luzi Bernhard won in the 6-dog class. Luzi is third in the total ranking and is three minutes before Erwin Föger.