Remember that notorius track we visited in December, the one where people either win medals by making it down rightside up, or they die?

Well, apparently no one has noticed that a quaint little Swiss track has been quietly creeping up alongside Altenberg, vying for the honour of "Most likely place for a skeleton athlete to incur brain damage."

When people find out that you will be sliding in St. Moritz, they become all wistful and teary-eyed, reminding you that this modern-day winter resort is the birthplace of skeleton, and that you will feel a particular sense of awe and reverence at being one of the few priviledged sliders to make their way down the only natural track in the world, the ice having been cut by hand from the lakes of the Engadine valley in the Eastern Swiss alps.

What they fail to mention is the part about a little corner called Horseshoe. If the above sentence had an ounce of reality inserted into it, it would read something like this:

When people find out that you will be sliding in St. Moritz, they become all distraught and horrified, reminding you that this modern-day winter resort is the birthplace of the crazy sport that you do, and that you will feel a particular sense of terror and nausea at being one of the few masochistic sliders to make their way down a 100-year old track that has public access road siting no more than five metres away from of a terrifying curve called Horse Shoe, so that the locals can ride the city bus and laugh as you rocket off the exit of the corner and prompty knock yourself out, leaving a trail of blood behind you as your limp and lifeless body plummet to certain death in the valley below.

Let's put this corner into perspective shall we?

On our first day of training, there was no less than six full-blown, knock-down, drag-out, sled-losing crashes, one requiring a stretcher to extricate the slider from the track, a second knocking the guy out cold and a third that resulted in a trail of blood down the track (you should have seen his sled, helmet and face ... ). And these weren't just the inexperienced sliders biting off more than they can chew. Americans, Germans ... for goodness sake, the very first competitor to go down was a Swiss guy, on his home track. He's the one who needed the stretcher ...

So let's just say that St. Moritz wins this round. Altenberg, you are kinda looking like a sissy right now, what with your two race crashes and one sprained ankle ...

Oh, did I mention how freakin' awesome this track is? I can't quite put my finger on it, but I seem to feel this particular sense of awe and reverence at being one of the few priviledged sliders to make their way down the only natural track in the world ... bring it Horse Shoe!