Crossing the border in to Austria, St. Anton is somewhat of a legendary ski destination, however in the summer time is very quiet.  Known for scores of Europeans dancing on tables at "The Krazy Kangaroo" and other local haunts, this town has a lot of charm aside from bars from the land down under.

One of the neatest parts of St. Anton, and likely part of the reason it is so quiet in the summer, is that the "lodging" here is very atypical.  Instead of massive hotels and strings of condos, many of the lodging options in this town are actually free rooms (usually with their own showers, bathrooms, etc) within homes in the town.  While it is not something that we Americans do very often, it is actually a great way to stay in a resort town like this.  Even the cheapest options are very clean (we met a person from Australia who quipped "Austrians are very clean"), and the cuteness factor (did I just say that) is very high.  Typically these rooms include a free breakfast, and the hospitality is wonderful.  After a long winter of working hard catering to guests (and playing hard with the visitors), residents seem to settle in for the summer.

After spending so much time in Switzerland, and then venturing over to Austria, it is amazing to start to realize that each of the areas within each country has its own ski culture, and approach to what skiing means to them.  Given that resorts were built around the necessity to ski in winter (to get food, etc), instead of around the sheer recreation of the sport, the feel of the towns is much different.

On to Innsbruck!

In addition to our fun with winter sports, I have been very busy at work. I was recently put in the position of Chief of International Law. This position is a combination of managing the work of the Italian attorneys in the office and doing legal opinions on issues regarding the Air Force and Italy - there are quite a few. I don't feel like an expert in this area of law, but it's great to expand my legal horizons. In law school they say there's no such thing as specializing in any one area of law. I think too often attorney's get caught in just one area when in actuality we are all qualified to practice in any area (if we study and learn what we are talking about before we say it!).

I have also had a busy courts martial docket. We try to spread the case load around the office, but lately I've had a couple pretty significant cases. The blog is definitely not the proper place to get into the details of my cases (and I should really never be talking about pending cases), but I think it's fair to say that I am getting experience in the courtroom that a lot of attorneys don't get. I do about 1 case per month with sentences generally ranging from 4 months to 2 years.

I try not to let my work week get in the way of fun on the weekends. I usually put in about a 50 hour work week - sometimes less, but usually a little more. Compared to my friends from law school, I get off easy; but then again, they're making bank. I rarely put in a day on a weekend, which is important when there is some of the world's best skiing within hours of home.

But now it's spring (so sad). On our way home today we drove through a blizzard in the Alps only to find a beautiful 70 degree day in Aviano. I guess this means next weekend we should go to the beach - although Sarah claims we're out of money and we need to spend the weekend at home - we'll see who wins.

I flew into Las Vegas last week. It was my third visit to Las Vegas in the last 12 months and each time I arrive at the McCarran Airport, I immediately sense that there is something “unnatural” about Las Vegas.  Something about it just doesn’t feel quite right. And I am not really sure why.

Founded as a railroad town back in 1905, Las Vegas has made its mark as a place of illicit desire, a refuge from the laws and values that have held sway in the rest of puritan America.  The nation’s fastest growing city is comprised, not of offices or banks, but of casinos operating 24 hours a day, raking in profits from an activity outlawed almost anywhere else in the world. 

In 1890, Nevada was the lowest populated state in the union with a population well under 100,000.  There was talk at the time about Nevada becoming part of California and abolishing Nevada all together. Nevada lacked the resources that other states had; it was so arid that it lacked enough water to develop industries. In the end, what saved Nevada was its historic tolerance for sin. And so gambling, whoring and drinking became the way you survived in the desert. 

Little has changed in 120 years. Las Vegas is still based on the commercialization of desire, a city where the only currency is currency. As long as you have the chips, nobody cares what your race is, your color, your gender, your sexual orientation. Everybody is the same until you're out of money. And then when you're out of money you're just out.

And money – or the sound of money is everywhere. The first thing you hear when you walk up the ramp from your plane is the clatter of slot machines. You can't walk into a Seven Eleven or an AM/PM or anyplace else without there being slots. Even the grocery stores have slots. And I think that is what bothers me. Not the slots per se, but the unbridled optimism that they represent. The promise of the future. A bet on the future. "Come On", the flashing Sirens sing – one more spin of the wheel, one more quarter – and your life might change. Or at least for a few moments.

If you think about it, you can't have gambling without optimism. And there is a kind of structural optimism that forms the foundation of Las Vegas. Who would build a city, situated miles from no where, in the middle of a desert filled with snakes and serpents and all matters of evil?  The sane man would not be remiss to ask himself why on earth would you settle here? Because it is not a sensible place to build a city. It really is not. 

History tells us that a young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is the first person of European ancestry to beat the odds in Las Vegas. Mexican trader Antonio Armijo, leading a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles in 1829, veered from the accepted route. While Armijo's caravan was camped about 100 miles northeast of present day Las Vegas, Rivera rode west into the unexplored desert in search of water. Two weeks later, he hit the jackpot and discovered an artesian spring in a valley that was eventually to take on the name of "The Meadows" or Las Vegas in Spanish.

Some 16 years after Rivera's discovery, General Stephen Kearny led the Grand Army of the West into the town’s central plaza and demanded that the Alcalde, or mayor, join him in addressing the townspeople. At that time, Las Vegas,  was a small settlement of adobe houses set among rustling cornfields.  Kearny climbed a rickety ladder to the flat roof of one of the adobe buildings facing the plaza and announced to the collected citizens that by the orders of President James Polk he was absolving them from their allegiance to the Mexican government and claiming their country on behalf of the United States. And so began Las Vegas’s descent into sin.

The moral decline was significantly hastened by the arrival of the railroad in the summer of 1904. By 1890 railroad developers had determined the water-rich Las Vegas Valley would be a prime location for a stop facility and town and so in 1902 the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, (later known as the Union Pacific) purchased a 110 acre tract centered on what is today Las Vegas Boulevard.  The railroad laid out a town, held a land auction and on May 15, 1905 the city was born. 

The tent town called Las Vegas sprouted saloons, stores and boarding houses. The boom-years for Las Vegas wouldn't begin until after the 1931 completion of Boulder Dam but the attractions of liquor, prostitution and gambling were recognized early on. The center for these activities was an area known as Block 16, one of two blocks (there were 40 in the original town) that the founding town fathers in their wisdom licensed to serve liquor without restriction. It quickly grew to sell women as well. 

Block 16 catered to the repair yard workers and miners, but weary travelers journeyed to the saloons for refreshment while their trains stopped in the town for a 45 minute layover. The Double O, Red Onion, Arcade, and Arizona Club served 10-cent shots, hosted poker, faro, and roulette, and sported cribs out back for bar customers with the urge. The Arizona Club was the poshest with a with a glass front, a $20,000 mahogany bar, and a second story for the convenience of the ladies of the night and their gentlemen. 

Despite the occasional spirited civic campaign to eliminate them, Block 16's activities survived numerous challenges over the years. At midnight, Oct. 1, 1910, a strict anti-gambling law became effective in Nevada. The Nevada State Journal newspaper in Reno reported: "Stilled forever is the click of the roulette wheel, the rattle of dice and the swish of cards. "Forever" lasted less than three weeks. Ten years later, the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect, banning the transport and sale of alcohol throughout the country. During the thirteen years of Prohibition, the saloons on Block 16 operated and sold alcoholic drinks in secret as did other so-called "speakeasies" around the United States. 

The local sex industry also managed to survive the tidal wave of Progressive-era brothel shutdowns that re-shaped cities such as Denver, San Francisco and Sacramento. The wave did touch Las Vegas during the '20s, however, when a grand jury instructed city commissioners that "occupants of houses of ill fame not be allowed on the streets, unless properly clothed” - an attempt to discourage the scantily clad women from sitting in second-floor windows of the bordellos on hot summer nights.  What finally killed Block 16 was World War Two. With soldiers at the nearby Las Vegas Aerial and Gunnery Range coming up for off-duty passes in rotations of hundreds a night, Block 16 was seen as a challenge to martial discipline. When the commander of the Gunnery Range threatened to declare the whole town off-limits to servicemen, local officials immediately revoked the liquor licenses and slot machine permits of the casinos on Block 16. 

While city officials were able to close down the flesh trade, illegal gambling flourished until 1931 when the Nevada Legislature approved a legalized gambling bill authored by Phil Tobin, a Northern Nevada rancher. Tobin had no interest in gambling and had never visited Las Vegas, but saw gambling as a vehicle to raise funds for public schools.

To Be Continued….

Sankt Anton am Arlberg is a village in Tyrol, Western Austria, with a population of c. 2,800 in the summer and around 20,000 in the winter. The dramatic influx of residents is due to St. Anton’s prominence as a ski resort.  Situated at 1,304 m above sea level in the Tyrolean Alps, St. Anton lies on the Rosanna River, and is on the main East-West rail line between Austria and Switzerland. It is well known around the world as the host of the Alpine World Skiing Championships in 2001 and as one of the world's most famous international winter resorts. 

The history of Tyrol reflects the history of Austria – a drama of almost continual war and dynastic conflict, interrupted by intermittent periods of peace. All the famous names are here –  the Habsburgs, Napolean, Leopold of Babenberg, Metternich, Hitler….. 

Incorporated into the Southern part of the Duchy of Bavaria during the Early Middle Ages,  the region fell under the rule of Duke Rudolph IV of House of Habsburg  in the 1369 and from that time onwards, Tyrol was ruled by various lines of the Habsburg family. Following their defeat by Napoleon in 1805, the Habsburgs were forced to cede Tyrol back to the Kingdom of Bavaria. The Tyroleans, who had no great love for their neighbors the Bavarians, rose up and succeeded twice in defeating Bavarian and French troops trying to retake the country. Tyrol remained divided under Bavarian and Italian authority for another four years before being reunified and returned to Austria at the Congress of Vienna in 1814.  Integrated into the Austrian Empire, from 1867 onwards it was a Kronland (Crown Land) of Austria-Hungary.

It at this time that tourism on the Arlberg began in earnest and the Tyrol became more than a chess piece in the games played by Europe's dynasties. The tunnel to Switzerland was built during the 1880’s and with the tunnel came the train and on the train were the Brits with their skis.  St. Anton became the first truly international ski destination in Europe because it was on the route of The Orient Express.  The Tyrolean's contribution to skiing includes the first chair lift ever built, the first tram, the first ski school and the concept of Apres Ski (more on this later).

This evolution of the sport of skiing was interrupted periodically by the occasional regional conflict. The onset of World War I saw the heavy fighting centered along the historical border of Tyrol with this front becoming known as the "War in ice and snow", as troops occupied the highest mountains and glaciers all year long. Twelve metres (40 feet) of snow were a quite normal occurrence during the winter of 1915–16 and tens of thousands of soldiers disappeared in avalanches. (The remains of these soldiers are still being uncovered today.) 

The Italian Alpini, as well as their Austrian counterparts (Kaiserjäger, Standschützen and Landesschützen) and the German Alpenkorps occupied the mountain tops and carved extensive fortifications and military quarters, drilling tunnels inside the mountains and deep into glaciers. Guns were dragged to the tops of mountains reaching 3,890 m (12,760 ft). The forces that had occupied the higher ground were almost impossible to dislodge, so both sides turned to drilling tunnels under mountain peaks, filling them up with explosives and then detonating the whole mountain to pieces, including its defenders. Welcome to the neighborhood. 

The 1930’s saw little respite from conflict.  Although the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of St. Germain had explicitly forbidden the unification of Austria and Germany, Nazi troops entered Austria in March of 1938 and became a part of the notorious Third Reich. As a result, Austria ceased to exist as an independent country.  

Life has improved in the Tyrol since the end of the war. Few resorts in the world can match this place when it comes to expert terrain, off-piste, and trail variety. This resort has trails facing every exposure of the compass, allowing skiers to chase the sun for the entire day and never see a shadow. Cruisers delight in the over 4,000 feet plus of vertical on numerous top-to-bottom runs, and an ultra modern lift system has eliminated most of the lines for which the resort used to be notorious.

St. Anton is part of the Arlberg alliance of ski resorts—a region that includes the ski areas of St. Anton, Lech, Stuben and St. Christoph. In all there are more 82 cable cars and ski lifts, 260 km (160 miles) of groomed pistes and 184 km (114 miles) of deep-snow runs. Expert terrain includes less frequently groomed ski routes such as Schindlerkar and Mattun, and the backside of Valluga (2,811 m) down to Zürs, which is for experts and then only if accompanied by a guide. The overall area measures 50km² - think Whistler or Vail and then multiply it by two.

Skiing has a long history in this village: even before World War I, the first skiing teachers were employed at St. Anton, home of the world's first ski school. Further contributing to the reputation that the region enjoys today as a winter sports centre was the Arlberg Ski School founded by Hannes Schneider after WW II. Schneider was one of the foremost figures in the early days of skiing and developer of the “Arlberg Method”; the first uniform method of ski instruction. Legend has it that one day, Schneider , after taking a couple of particularly nasty falls, finished the rest of his run in a deep crouch. This, of course, had the effect of lowering his centre of gravity, and no more falls resulted. He tried the crouch again the next day, and this time discovered what was apparently a new way to turn.

This resort is not a quiet place. It boasts a nightlife and is a meeting place for some of the greatest skiers on the planet. Most of them can be found at the Mooserwit located a few hundred feet off the main run. It packs in hundreds of skiers and snowboarders drinking beer and schnapps. The music is Euro remixes and dance tracks. One of my Austrian remarked that Mooserwit is one of the top 100 businesses in the country. That doesn’t say much about Austria, but it does give you a sense of scale. The fun doesn't stop at Mooserwit. There is the Krazy Kangaroo, Scottys, Underground, Amadeus, and many more. 

The role Apres Ski plays in St. Anton is illustrated by the advertisements for Billy Boy condoms, lingerie and JagerMeister (the local alcohol of choice) which line the trams and gondolas. There is a certain coherence here. And the three advertisements juxtaposed next to each other does kind of set the mood. 

There are a number of lodging options from very upscale hotels to more modest family owned hotels. At Christmas we stayed at the Hotel Parseierblick, a traditional Austrian ski lodge run by Lilo Stolz (www.parseierblick.at). The accommodations were clean and cheerful and the Hotel Parseierblick is located about 30 feet from one of the new high speed gondolas, so it was very convenient. The real pleasure, however, was the Strolz family. They were warm and extremely hospitable and made us feel very much a part of St. Anton. 

Last month we returned and stayed at a more traditional, upscale hotel – the Ski Hotel Galzig. A relatively new and modern hotel it was also very well located and very well managed. But for all of the modern amenities, it lacked the warmth and genuiness that we had come to associate with St. Anton. 

Quelle: SID