Here is a first-hand report from our colleague Michael Pawlovsky:
The Hornattacke goes from the beautiful city of Bolzano up to the summit of the Rittner Horn, which adds up to a route of about 20 kilometres with 2000 vertical metres. The first 13.5 kilometres are covered in trail shoes and the last 6.5 kilometres in ski boots & on skis. Most participants (106 this year) are solo starters who cover the entire route. So does the mountaineer category (23), except that they carry their whole kit with them from start to finish. For solo starters it is transported to Pemmern for the transition. That is also where the third category, the relay teams (48), changes over. The runners start 15 minutes after the first start and then hand over to the ski tourers.
Race documents
Picking up the race documents at the Hotel Stiegl goes without any problems and without waiting. Everything is perfectly prepared and every move is spot on. Unlike last year I had already uploaded my medical certificate, the team remembered it right away and we joke around a bit before handing in the transition bags in the hotel courtyard. Since we are not staying at the hotel itself and wanted to save ourselves a second trip, I had everything with me in my backpack.
The race
9 a.m. … attack. The solo starters sprint out of Bolzano as if the Rittner Horn were right behind the town sign. And even there we are still sprinting up the first climb into the vineyards … at last the first runners around me switch to power hiking, I do the same and so we pick up the first vertical metres while still on tarmac. I am in the first third of the field and I am trying to stay there, for Günther and for my 20 minutes. It is not easy, because it feels as if you are surrounded by nothing but local mountain-running pros whose way to school went up into Bolzano’s mountains without e-bikes and parent taxis. My school stood in the so-called lower town of my home town, whose highest point is 650 metres. That thought makes me laugh, and the sun above us laughs with me, its warmth already giving a taste of the ski tour ahead. By then we leave the tarmac, dive into the shadier forest and have the first trails under our feet. Up to Oberbozen (aid station 1) it now climbs steadily, so that after the first feed you really do look forward to the first flatter kilometres. The protagonists of an alpaca enclosure still honour us with quizzical looks before we head back into the woods on forest tracks that run well. Here we keep coming across patches of ice, which the organising team has gritted, so they run well too. After a short while the first view of our goal opens up, the Rittner Horn. There is a moment for a “phew, that is still a fair way” thought, but the mountain-running pros have by now mutated into trail pros, so the pace stays high and the terrain demands your full attention.
Up to the transition zone, forest tracks alternate with root-covered trails. Apart from the patches of ice the ground is already dry and together with 5 other runners I make good progress. The transition is perfectly organised. Helpers direct the runners into their row. The skis are ready and the “transition bag” is already open. Quickly into the boots, pick up skis & poles, a short feed at the aid station, kiss the girlfriend and off onto the piste, straight into the low point of my race. The ski route, closed off especially for the race, starts with a climb that will not let me find my rhythm under the sun. I line up on the right-hand side and get left behind on the right rather often. Now I need a hammer, so my last gel from the manufacturer of the same name goes down right here, and at some point this climb, too, comes to an end. The whole route is perfectly prepared and not yet slushy. One participant recognises the seriousness of the situation and urges me to “push, push”. That becomes my mantra for the first steep climbs, until up to the aid station you only climb, errr push, gently and I finally find my rhythm. My head has noticed that too, because it is now reckoning not with Günther’s 20 minutes but with a time under 3 hours. At the Feltuner Hut my girlfriend is already waving and 11:35 is called out to me as the current time. Ambition would actually have skipped the last aid station in order to tackle the final XXX vertical metres in the remaining 25 minutes, but not after the first slump and not in these temperatures. I quickly drink 3 of the sweetened teas before the final push. At 12:01 I cross the finish line after 3:01 hours and Günther immediately calls out my time and congratulates me on my performance. It was not his 20 minutes, but right now neither of us cares. Shortly afterwards Florin from the Mountainspirit team congratulates me and offers me a sip of his wheat beer straight away and we congratulate each other on finishing. All that warmth ends abruptly, though, when I hear my own voice over the loudspeakers during the finish-line interview. I think I laughed more along the whole route than the listeners at the finish … but I found myself funny 😉 Hornattacke … un grande grazie, ci vediamo l’anno prossimo.
Food and drink
During the attack on the Horn you can refuel three times in total. While running in Oberbozen (5.8 kilometres), in the transition zone (13.4 kilometres) and then on skis at the Feltuner Hut after 17 kilometres, before the final climb. This year there were small Wanner wafers, chocolate and Schokobites as solid food, plus water, cola and tea (sweetened) as liquids. At the finish there are – wordplay alert – bananas on top. The highlight this year is once again the finisher catering at the Feltuner Hut. There, in a military tent put up especially for it, they serve pasta either vegetarian or with speck, and on top of that there is an alcohol-free beer.
Equipment
Given the sunny forecast I started in short sleeves and shorts. So in the transition bag for the change to skis I only had one gel from Hammer and my ski boots. Note to self: hand in the boots already in walk mode and the transition is far less annoying. For the running leg I had trail running poles with me, which I swapped for my ski poles in the transition zone. The things left behind in the transition zone are packed up again by helpers and can be collected there after the race on presentation of a ticket.
For the finish I had handed in a complete change of clothes (long) including a jacket and a Trailrunning24 hoodie by Miriquidi (deliberate advertising 😉). A military squad tent provides a bit of privacy while changing. A small towel might make sense too; at those temperatures I freshened up with snow this year.
This year I started for the first time on race skis from Hagan & lighter ski boots. Once again a big thank you to Günther and his team at the Mountainspirit Shop in Bolzano.
Who is this race for?
Quite simply, for everyone. For pros, amateurs, recreational athletes, couples and friends. Read the bare numbers and they can look pretty impressive … especially for flatlanders like most of us. But the tough Hornattacke also has a soft core, and that is what counts. As a starter you simply feel welcome, you look into nothing but smiling faces and the whole organisation of the race is set up so that every finisher is valued, celebrated and treated the same. It really does not matter whether you sprint across the finish line first or are still having a chat over an alcohol-free beer at the aid stations while the winner has to pose for photos with a presumably far too heavy laurel wreath. You choose 😉 This year the organising team went one better and the main prize, touring skis from Majesty, went to the solo starter whose time was the average between the 1st & the last finisher. Sadly it was not me.
Related at Mountainspirit: Events, Ski touring
