Still on the slopes of St. Anton am Arlberg at 99 years old
Lotte Hosp
"Ski for as long as you can" is Lotte Hosp's motto. The Innsbruck resident is still “treading the planks" at the ripe old age of 99. Accompanied by a television crew, she recalls the days of Hannes Schneider, wooden skis and using pure muscle power for her ascents in St. Anton am Arlberg.
Wearing pink ski pants, a blue jacket and a big smile. Things have changed greatly since she took her first turns on the slopes around 90 years ago. These may be busier now – but Lotte still loves to ski. "I can ski, I've been doing it long enough. It's just the children you have to watch out for," she explains. The fact that Lotte is still enjoying active sports at almost 100 years of age has also piqued the interest of local television station, ORF Tirol. At the end of the 2023 winter season, the camera, her two children and reporters accompanied her on a skiing trip in St. Anton am Arlberg. Originally from Upper Austria, she found the subsequent visit to the ski museum particularly exciting.
Kitted out by the Fischer family
Slightly battered wooden skis with a string binding were 10-year-old Charlotte Hosp’s pride and joy in the mid-1930s. "My mother worked as a housekeeper in the Fischer household. She was allowed to express a wish and asked for skis for me,” the sprightly woman recalls. Although the Austrian ski manufacturer Fischer had production facilities virtually next door, Lotte was one of the few children in the region with her own pair of skis. She learned to ski by watching and practising on Ried Mountain, which was hard training considering there were no gondolas or drag lifts back then.
A house full of memories
Black and white pictures of skiing pioneer Hannes Schneider and nostalgic wooden skis whisk the 99-year-old back to the time when she was first able to hone her skiing skills in Tyrol. Lotte remembers lectures on the "Arlberg technique" at the museum in St. Anton am Arlberg extern and the fact that she could not afford ski lessons herself. "People knew Schneider back then, of course. But he was not the only one who could ski quite well – I could too," laughs the sports-loving lady. In the early 1950s she came to Tyrol to work as a dental assistant, and soon found herself out on the slopes together with friends and the person who would later become her husband. Before her husband passed away in 2016 at the age of 90, the couple regularly toured the mountain peaks on skis. Lotte fondly remembers St. Anton am Arlberg as being part of her "best" times: "It's beautiful here. A wonderful, expansive skiing area," she enthuses.
As long as you have some kind of board
When the snow on the mountains disappears, Lotte stows away her skis and starts planning her next trip. She travels to Apulia every summer with her son and daughter. Luggage includes: sunscreen, swimming costume and three surfboards. Windsurfing keeps the sports-loving great-grandmother feeling young and Lotte has no intention of stopping anytime soon: neither from skiing, nor hiking, or surfing.
