Alpine Skiing

In 1969 when James Bond made his skiing debut on the silver screen in On Her Majesty's Secret Service he did it in a Swiss little town called Murren. This week Canada's best downhill and slalom skiers have come to another little Swiss ski town that sits smack dab across the valley from the birthplace of Bond's first ski tracks.

Wengen, the home of the famed Lauberhorn Rennen, one of the ski racing world's crowning jewels - and perhaps the 2nd most famous downhill race in the world (next to the Kitzbuehel Hahnenkamm), is a sleepy little alpine hollow that sits on high atop the snowy peaks of the Bernese Oberland in the shadow of The Eiger - another mountain famous to film buffs (remember Clint Eastwood in The Eiger Sanction?). A pedestrian town with a strict no-car policy, Wengen is only accessible via train - the same one George Lazenby's Bond disembarked before being escorted up to super-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld's mountain lair Piz Gloria on the Schilthorn in neighboring Murren.

"Wengen is one of the coolest places in the world," says Aksel Lund Svindal, last year's overall World Cup champion.

"The Lauberhorn downhill is great because it's very different from the other tracks on the World Cup tour. But it's a combination of the history of the race, the natural beauty of the Bernese Alps and the event's incredible atmosphere - that only Kitzbuehel can compare with - that make this place so special."

If the Kitzbuehel Hahnenkamm - considered by many as the Super Bowl of alpine skiing- is the most dangerous and intimidating ski race in the world, then the Wengen Lauberhorn may be the Stanley Cup of the circuit because it's the longest (almost 4.5 kms) and most physically grueling downhill course in the world.

The track itself is categorized as a "classic" race which basically means it's been around a very long time (races have been held here since 1930 and even ran during WWII) and in some respects is more obstacle course than race course compared to its more modern counterparts on the World Cup tour. With legendary course sections - with even more legendary names - like "The Hundschopf" an eye-of-the-needle shaped rock passage that leads to an insane elevator drop-like jump over razor sharp rocks, the "Alpweg with Kernen-S" a severe 90-degree S-turn involving a narrow bridge (yes I said bridge), the "Wasserstation" a dark cramped 9-metre-wide train tunnel you take at 100 km/h - you basically have everything you'd need for a chase scene in a James Bond film if the storyline included a ski race location. It's no wonder Bond's first foray into on-screen skiing began on a neighbouring peak.

"Skiing at high speeds in a crouched tuck is tough enough when you do it for a minute-forty-five or even two minutes. Imagine trying to stay in a tuck position for two minutes and thirty seconds while negotiating huge jumps, super sharp turns and then a tunnel! I'm sure even James Bond would be impressed with that," says Manuel Osborne-Paradis who won bronze here in 2008 and is considered one of the favourites in Saturday's downhill.

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Canadian skier Manuel Osborne-Paradis jubilates in the finish area after finishing in 3rd place in the Men's FIS Alpine World Cup downhill, 13 January 2008 in Wengen.

Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images

"I love Wengen because it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever skied at. And I love the Lauberhorn as a race course because it's a downhiller's downhill - it allows you to go full on full speed, as fast as you want - or dare to go - from top to bottom. It's not about technical racing skills here; it's more about guts and endurance."

If Osborne-Paradis or his Canadian Cowboy teammates are successful here they will make headlines across the world but not history, as Wengen is already steeped in Canadian history - albeit from another era.

Initially Canada's contribution to Lauberhorn-lore came in the form of some highlight reel crashes. In fact, one of the most technical and treacherous parts of the track is known even to this day as Canadian Corner after Crazy Canuck Dave Irwin made a spectacular "impression" on the course as well as local fans with an earth-moving crash in 1976.

But fortunately, our national history on the slopes of Wengen took a more positive turn on January 18th, 1980 when another famous Crazy Canuck named Ken Read pushed out of the famed Lauberhorn wooden start hut and 2-minutes and 31.31 seconds later became the first North American to win the race. And if that wasn't enough he followed it up with a 2nd place finish the next day in a second downhill on the same track. Read, who had also won the Kitzbuehel Hahnenkamm one week prior is an excellent source of information on the differences and nuances of the alpine world's two crown jewels.

"The Lauberhorn is a very different downhill - Kitz is balls to the walls tough. Wengen is subtle and deceptively challenging. It is always good when Wengen goes before Kitz, because when it follows it always ‘seems' easier. Wengen usually precedes Kitz which is a good progression of the classics," says Read who now heads up Alberta Alpine, the governing body of alpine skiing for the province.

"Wengen, is subtle, but as time has progressed it is actually coming back into its' own. I think it has become an even better downhill in recent years - snowmaking and cat grooming had taken away much of the challenge, but speed, breadth and a focus to ensure it is a tough track has elevated the toughness of the Lauberhorn. Plus the crowd is quite something else - so Swiss and it's not easy to get up to the track & watch!"