NO SNOW FROM YESTERDAY

Christian Lingenhöle skied for the first time at the age of three and still skis over 70 days a year as a pensioner. In addition to ski resorts such as Livigno in Lombardy or the Arlberg, he spends most of his time skiing in Damüls. His favorite place, where his parents built their first vacation home and a ski lift in 1950. The young Lingenhöle spent almost every weekend and vacation in the snow-sure mountain village between the Bregenzerwald and the Großes Walsertal. "To ease my homesickness for skiing, I always took a snowball from Damüls to Bregenz and kept it in the fridge," says the former ski instructor with a smile.

The sportsman's love of snow stayed with him for the rest of his life. For 41 years, he was the youngest merchant in Austria to run a sporting goods store in Bregenz, where the hunt for his treasures began. Primarily as decoration for the store, later for the extensive exhibition in Damüls. How did he come across the precious exhibits? "I heard from somewhere that there used to be a 'Kanisski' in Au. Then I went there and asked relatives of the former company. I saw a friend's logo with the Kanisfluh as a decal in an old exercise book, and that got the ball rolling," says the collector. Such a search can sometimes take a long time; it took him five years, for example, just to find this coveted ski. In 2011, the former vicarage below the Damüls church then offered itself as a new exhibition venue for his collection. Two years to collect even more intensively before the ski museum was officially opened. Many exhibits were donated, lent or sold to him. The archive became so large that he was given another depot in the basement when the building was renovated. Upstairs on the second floor of the historic wooden building, his exhibition focuses on three main areas: The pioneers, the material and racing.

Here, in Christian's world, the first part of the exhibition begins with stories about three Vorarlberg skiing pioneers: Viktor Sohm, Hannes Schneider and Colonel Bilgeri. "They made a significant contribution to the development of skiing and tourism in the region," emphasizes the expert. One of them was Viktor Sohm, who in 1887 was the first skier in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy to ski with Norwegian equipment on the Gebhardsberg, above Bregenz.

As a ski course instructor in Zürs in 1906, he was also the teacher of another pioneer: Hannes Schneider from Stuben am Arlberg. He appeared in over 20 films, including "Der weiße Rausch" and became famous for his own turn: the Arlberg technique. "A stem turn in a low crouch that initiates the turn faster and allows you to ski more safely," explains Christian. A critic of the Nazi regime, Schneider emigrated to America during the Second World War and built a large ski school there, which is still run by his great-grandson today.

The third pioneer in the group was Colonel Bilgeri. Like Sohm, also a Bregenzer, he trained soldiers and brought the Bilgeri binding onto the market. He helped the two-pole technique and ski gymnastics achieve a breakthrough, developed ski waxes and functional ski equipment made from worsted wool and silk lining. "The women also loved the colonel," jokes the museum director. Sales regularly increased in his sister's hat store when he announced he was staying overnight at her house. "When he died, it was said that he should be given a white ribbon on his cross as a single man. Friends intervened and it became a gray one," Christian knows from a reliable source.

The third focus of the ski museum shows historical exhibits of former Vorarlberg racers who won a medal at the Olympics or World Championships.
There are also some of Lingenhöle's favorite pieces, which have an emotional value for the museum director. One of these is the number five of Trude Jochum-Beiser, who was the first woman from Vorarlberg to win a gold medal at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo. Secondly, the World Championship medals of Heidi Zimmermann-Strasser and Werner Bleiner as well as Toni Innauer's first ski jump, which wasn't actually a ski jump at all.

When Innauer was twelve years old, he was not nominated for a ski race. Out of spite, he mounted a jump binding on an alpine ski and trained with it behind his house. In the same winter, he used it to jump to the hill record at the national ski jumping championships on the Pfänder. "At the Austrian championships, he was told to change skis so they wouldn't be ashamed. He said, either I come with this ski or not at all," says Christian. Innauer became runner-up and later a legend as world champion and Olympic champion. Every success is in the detail. Christian Lingenhöle, who has an exciting story to tell about every exhibit in the Damüls Ski Museum, would certainly agree. On Tuesdays and Fridays, as well as during special exhibitions, his team with Pepi, Egon and Reinold open the museum doors and invite interested visitors to join them in reminiscing.