Giacomo "El Barba" Mosele

It doesn't happen to all be selected for the Olympics, get ready to hit the track for 50 km and then being sent to compete in a race in France only to leave the room to the family of one of the bosses of the Italian delegation.

It happened in Cortina in 1956, hotel Venice, where he was staying the blue team, and still today to Giacomo Mosele, the popular "beard" of Asiago, class of 1925, then enrolled in finance, is foaming at the mouth when he thinks better of it. Years of sacrifice and, suddenly, hoping to impress it melts like snow in the Sun. "I had to suffer and if I put my hands on you, it's only because I've always had respect for superiors. But at least the satisfaction of sending the captain to hell I've sprung up. You stole my spot, I told him to ugly mug. Shame on you, you're worse than a washerwoman".

A rash that, in practice, has put an end to his career. Still a few races, but with no more enthusiasm than before. By his marriage to Marcella Cunico, cousin of Stella (Valentino, Gianfranco, Aldo and Roberto), family of cross country skiers from the Asiago plateau then took the road of Valle d'Aosta, Alpine School, was meanwhile founded a daughter and, with it, the idea to build a future outside the military section. Idea done before with the purchase of the land on which it was born, in contrada Kaberlaba, and then with the construction of a hotel on top of the first off, a hundred meters from the parental home. An estimate of 40 million, a charge of 100, many sacrifices to pay this debt. Took the master license, right here at the "beard", was born one of the first country centres. They had come out the first skiing Trak and between Ave and the ground was Kaberlaba ideal for beginners and then started teaching.

Between hotel, ski school, care of forests and land is not that the leftover too long. Yet the widespread work never prevented from cultivating his passion, carving wood, who now shares with her husband of the eldest daughter. Their works are scattered throughout the property, to cheer up a completely renewed with the restructuring of 1999. Twenty-two rooms with all facilities, game rooms and relaxing mountain bike storage. A modern hotel, always a familiar management: now we think the daughters and son-in-law, but parents don't just do the grandparents. As seniors, they always give a hand; the beard, then walking customers and care its flowers in an almost manic. No longer Fund, in this area, and then has equipped paths in the Woods. Over 90 years, but he feels the weight of age and fatigue; Indeed, it always looks like but even more the spirit of a young man. Always on the move.

But what kind of athlete was the Beard in his best years? "I became a distance runner. Ours was a large family, made up of 7 males and 3 females. You were all in the House. I had never thought of skiing; I liked most jump from a springboard that we had set in a valley below the House.  Not used on skis, but tablets that we put to soak in buttermilk to slide more. My younger siblings we knew how to do with the Fund. Bruno, Italian champion 1928 class individual and relay, had become among the balilla; Gino, 1930, had won the Junior Championship; Pacific, 1932, in 16 years went to Australia, but first would win all the races.

I at the bottom I got there by accident. The trophy was scheduled battlefields, which takes place even today; you would enter the Blues veterans from the world St. Moritz: the favorites were Aristide and Severino Compagnoni, Silvio Confortola, Archangel Cg. Giving away a valuable watch. A friend, Italian champion of State From Gladstone Ave, managed to convince me to attend. Lent me his skis and a pair of shoes, which were narrow. I had not even the suit. I wore the dress at the party and I was ashamed to be seen as a pilgrim among champions. I got a sweater, I stuck the pants into socks and I took off. The heating didn't even know what it was, either. I was running on the climbs, I pushed to arms because, by making the lumberjacks, was strong. Muscles that seemed carved in steel. Other than the gym and weights ... Aristide Compagnoni took a piece to overcome myself, and to do so he had to wait for the plan; He complimented me upon arrival. I won the 2nd and 3rd category; before me there were only 12 blues and a couple of other athletes.

And it wasn't that I started my life as an athlete. Finance, which I had been eyeing, he wanted to enlist. I made them wait a few months, then I put on my uniform. It was August 1948. However, despite the trainings and teachings, I always suffered major technical deficiencies. I was like a mountain goat, but where there was to be pulled up, I wasn't right. Winning always uphill fraction of alpine runners (Stelvio, Kanin, Monte Lussari), I beat the Olympian Cuel to Rainier, but when the track required technique and mastery of the skis, for me it was over. Anyway I came second twice in the Italian Championships and earned selection for the Olympic 50 km. He betrayed me the hotel room: too beautiful and great for an athlete, more suitable for the family of the captain. The laundress .... "