La Loupe St. Anton, St. Christoph & Stuben am Arlberg No. 4

PETER MALL’S
WORDRAP
I’ve reached heaven on earth when …
I can get up in the morning.
Something I’d still like to achieve
professionally: I’ve never been the sort
of person that sets himself big goals.
I live from task to task and I’m very
content right now.
In order to reach inner peace …
I run a lot.
My most beautiful hobby?
Running and hiking.
Climbing or skiing? Skiing.
L.L. You have a leading role in the organisation
of the “Weisser Rausch”. How did this
idea come up?
P.M. In 1997 we were looking for concepts to
revive the late season. I had the film Der Weisse
Rausch – White Frenzy – with its spectacular
mass ski race in my head and I thought: Wow,
cool idea! So we decided to actually replicate
that race. And when we saw the euphoria of the
skiers that arrived in the finish area we knew:
this is going to be big. We started with only 60
participants and this year we can look forward
to several hundred enthusiastic hobby athletes.
For us organisers it is a great challenge to make
this race as safe as possible.
L.L. Why do some events see such a huge
hype while others are hardly noted?
P.M. I think it’s about an event’s number
of participants. The more people, the greater
the hype. And once you’ve reached a certain
threshold, the event develops its own dynamic
that attracts the people. When we organised a
mountain bike race in St. Anton am Arlberg twenty years ago, we were
among the first organisers. At present you can generally feel a certain
oversaturation. At the moment the sports events where the participants
really have to give everything they have, physically, are every popular.
People love the extreme and the exclusive. One example: the mountain
film festival. It shows extraordinary films to a selected audience. Athletes
who push their limits or even go beyond that are the protagonists of the
festival. And that’s exactly what the diverse audience wants.
SMS, Whatsapp or telephone?
Telephone.
My absolutely favourite event (doesn’t
necessarily have to be in St. Anton)?
New York Marathon.
80
L.L. The ARLBERG-well.com has been a fixed part of
St. Anton’s MICE offer, meaning congresses and meetings.
Who are the majority of clients?
Our offer of congress services is particularly popular in the medical area.
From anaesthesiologists to oral surgeons – we have many medical specialist
congresses here. So there is a lot of intense work being done here. For
the business travellers skiing on the Arlberg is only second priority but of