If anyone has profited from the rapid rise in the popularity of skiing, it is Annemarie and Nikolaus Britz. Skiers have been coming by train to their hotel in Schneewald for fifty years, but these were always rich and sports loving people, because after all, they first had to climb to the top of the mountain in groups  before they could glide down to the bottom. 

But  Schneewald has had a lift now for the last three years, an anchor lift even, and suddenly there has been a huge increase in ski tourism. The hotel is fully booked throughout the winter and in the summer months walkers also use the lift so that they only have to walk down the mountain. But skiers are the principle business. Especially now that the invention of aluminium skis with safety fastenings has led to fewer accidents so that more people dare to go skiing.

There are even skiers from abroad! The hotel offers sixteen large rooms and each morning Annemarie serves her guests a hearty breakfast. She shops for this at "Bernhard's Backstube", and the skiers always appreciate it.  Annemarie does not serve meals, the sportsmen and women have to eat at the restaurant run by Aldo Ramsbeck. After the après ski the skiers can take a seat here and in the evening enjoy a quiet beer with the local population in the "stube". Their twenty one year old son Jost for example is one of these locals, he works during the winter as a ski instructor at the "Skischule und Geschäft Nena" run by Nena Birkholz,  with his sun-browned face he is highly popular with the young lady skiers and has no scruples in taking advantage of this. Daughter Gertrud has also been skiing since her third birthday and is looking forward to studying in Innsbruck next year. But after that she will definitely be giving ski lessons in Schneewald.