Radio Communications

You run a few steps and then dive onto your toboggan. You are immediately in the kamakazi position and picking up speed. Before the first corner you move back on the toboggan so your feet and the knives at the rear of the runners can steer you around the corner. Three corners and you can go forward briefly past the clubhouse before the famous Shuttlecock corner. This is where your ride can end early in the straw.
If you havent raked off enough speed you leave the run like a pip out of a lemon.
Once you are through Shuttlecock you can to a degree enjoy the rest of the run before you cross the three red lines at finish where you are at maximum speed some 70 mph 9 inches above the ice. Then it is scrub off speed time until you hit the mats at finish. You might be quick enough with getting your helmet off to hear the arbeiter call over his Motorola radio, "Run clear". Safety is paramount and the walkie talkies ensure that a rider can be confident that he will not hurtle around a corner and find an obstruction whether that be another rider or as once happened Rudolph!

Riding the famous Cresta Run in St Moritz is not where you would expect to find critical radio communications.
When you wait your turn to be called to the start box over the tannoy you have time to think about of speeds reaching 70 to 80 mph down an ice run on a skeleton toboggan head first 9 inches above the ice!

Your name is called, you haul your 37kg toboggan to the area marked with a blue line and a wooden barrier in front. Over the Motorola radio the arbeiter will call your name to Tower. The man before has disappeared down the run, You put your toboggan down and wait for a call over the radio of, "Run clear". Immediately you will hear a bell ding, the arbeiter lifts the barrier and you are ready to launch yourself down the run towards Shuttlecock corner and the end some 1,200 yards away. Part 2 tomorrow.