Following the 2025 AICC in Klosters and Davos, hosted by the Marden’s Ski Club, the 18th AICC moved to Lech Zürs am Arlberg, widely regarded as the cradle of Alpine skiing. It was an especially fitting setting for a week of racing, hosted by Ski-Club Arlberg, the world's first ski club; founded in St. Anton in 1901 and celebrating their 125th anniversary in 2026.

We arrived in Lech on 14th March via Germany, pumped from numerous DMCs on the drive with fellow LSC members. Low clouds and light snowfall greeted us on arrival. An exploratory stroll soon led us to cute coffee shops, then dinner and drinks at the Scotch Club: part restaurant and cocktail bar, part 1980s Bond-villain lair, perched above Lech and dangerously accomplished at persuading us to keep coming back throughout the week!

Day one delivered a full whiteout. We free-skied, lunched with the DHO gentlemen and collectively manifested bluebird skies. By early evening, the Marden’s crowd had drawn us into limbo and champagne at the Krone-Stuben. More cocktails followed at the Scotch Club and, somehow, elsewhere.

Our manifestation worked! Monday brought brilliant sunshine and the first of three CDC training days with Chemmy Alcott and her excellent team. We trained in Zürs on the night-race slope, sharpening technique and building confidence ahead of competition. That evening, heavy snow transformed the pre-AICC night-race into a battle of persistence. A timing-system heavy-snowflake-failure meant some racers needed up to four runs before recording a time! Lucky or unlucky was a difference in perspective. Perseverance paid off: Alice Hudson, Hayley Stoate and Grace Munro completed an all-LSC Young-Ladies podium, and Caro Brown took silver in the Senior Ladies category. Schnapps and sparkling wine accompanied the gondola ascent to speeches and prize-giving at the Trittkopf BBQ Station, 2,423 metres above sea level. The trophy designs were inspired by the historic single-pole technique of early Alpine skiing developed by Hannes Schneider and famously dubbed the ‘Arlberg’ technique of skiing.

Tuesday held more training for some, while others made the most of the expansive ski area and headed over towards St Anton, terrace lunches and St Patrick’s Day après involving espresso-martini shots, Aperol Spritz and magnums of Whispering Angel. The Scotch Club and K.Club carried proceedings late into the evening or maybe early into the following morning...

Wednesday’s steeper, faster training slope raised the tempo, although spring sunshine softened the snow and ended the training sessions early, for safety reasons. Therefore, a long chalet-terrace lunch at Rud-Alpe Gastronomie really made the most logical sense…followed by free skiing. A spectacular unexpected front-flip-wipeout prompted the swift purchase of back-protection pre-races; the DHO team and their on-slope pocket Jägermeister shots were definitely to blame for the unexpected spontaneous circus show!

By Wednesday evening, the AICC was officially under way. Ski-Club Arlberg’s organisation throughout the week was exceptional, from the race programme and mountain logistics to the detail surrounding every evening event. For the welcome drinks, the sports hall looked magnificent, with stacks of Ski-Club Arlberg custom-club-coloured Hannes Strolz ski boots repurposed as vases, complete with red and white flowers lining the stage! The LSC intimately kicked off the event with a club dinner at Pizzeria don enzo, where Serena supplied the ladies with LSC-club-pink knee straps: we were ready for racing to begin the following day! We sensibly chose one early night ahead of the main races…this is certainly an event of endurance, both on and off the slopes! 

The main races took place over the Schlegelkopf and Kriegerhorn slopes on Thursday and Friday, with five LSC teams lining up for the GS and Super-G. The joint LSC/SAS 70+ team topped the standings in both disciplines to take overall gold, while the LSC 60+ A team secured silver behind hosts Ski-Club Arlberg. For those of us racing, three days of training were suddenly distilled into a few minutes against the clock: GS demanded precision and discipline; Super-G rewarded confidence and commitment. 

On Thursday evening we were hosted at the Rudalpe for a traditional alpine dinner, followed by dancing…then a treacherous ‘survival’ descent down the slopes in the pitch black for another late night spent parading the clubs of Lech, perhaps not necessarily the best preparations to feel super for the Super-G the following day!

The more serious races were completed by Friday afternoon, which allowed us to strategise a protein-pit-stop with the most incredible steak tartare at Burg Hotel Oberlech - providing the team sufficient energy for the mixed-club parallel slalom (my personal favourite): chaotic, competitive and certainly the most entertaining race to spectate all week! 

By Friday evening, the Gala began beneath an extraordinary mountain sunset of pink and purple skies! The dress code was “ski club outfit - club colours - sport elegant”, a concept clearly slightly lost in translation. The LSC arrived elegantly but possibly inconsistently dressed in a spectrum from pink sportswear to pink beach dresses, only for the Spanish team, Club Esquí Alpi Pirineus (CEAP) to sweep in wearing club-blue sequinned tuxedos. Suddenly, we understood what “sport elegant” truly meant. The ski-boot flowers returned as table centrepieces; entertainment included a gloriously adapted “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” (replace "Life" with "Ski") projection-performance - the result of putting 200 ski-lunatics in a room and leaving somebody in charge of entertainment! The week ended, inevitably, with more champagne and dancing at Margo’s (the nightclub hidden deep within the basement of Arlberg Club House)! 

Lech captured exactly why AICC remains one of my favourite weeks in the calendar: serious racing without taking ourselves too seriously, outstanding hosting and friendships forged somewhere between the start gate and the Scotch Club! Like many, I started counting down to the AICC 2027 the minute I left Lech!