"The Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner" "For instance, I saw this bowl here, and the way the shape recedes, it's as if an explosion had happened, and the force cannot escape properly and is caught up everywhere." "Here you can see how everything is caught up, all the energy, and yet it's full of tension." "I've made a sketch to give me an idea how to set about it." "Ski-flying has reached the point where it's beginning to present real dangers." "We've just about reached the limit, I believe, as far as speed is concerned of the manageability of skis whereby the slightest wind, or bad snow, make it plain dangerous." "We all get a bit scared, especially if we see a colleague crash-landing, which I never do because I never look when someone crashes, because after a fall or a poor flight, your heart thumps like mad," "even during the run-down a bit." "The heart-thumping you get before a start must not be interpreted as being like the fear you feel just before a car crash and you see that something is going wrong." "If a man were that afraid, he'd be finished with ski-flying." "He wouldn't squat down to it." "He'd just jump straight ahead, and his skis would be pushed upwards." "Maybe he would jump off like someone who'd never jumped off a ramp before." "That's why ski-flyers don't like people talking of fear." "They talk about "respect for the conditions"" "or some such things, but never of fear." "I think we could jump off higher ramps." "But there'd be very likely jumps attempted and carried out that might lead to more accidents." "We're approaching the limit." "Maybe I'd prefer to turn back, go back to flying off 150- or 130-meter ramps." "But it's the thrill of flying so far that nevertheless gives me a kick as long as nothing happens to me" "I'd rather not talk about that." "The last jump and fall you just saw was by Walter Steiner in 1973 at the opening of Oberstdorf's huge ski-ramp." "Walter Steiner landed at exactly 179 meters." "That's this mark, and this mark is, in fact, the point where ski-flying starts to be inhuman." "Walter Steiner was in very great danger." "If he'd flown 10 meters more, he'd have landed down here on the flat." "Just imagine, it's like falling from a height of 110 meters onto a flat surface:" "To certain death." "Strange as it may seem, I can say I'm standing exactly where this film had its inception for me." "Shooting began in autumn 1973 during the Swiss team's training in Austria's Bad Aussee." "There the mat-ramp allows jumps of up to 70 meters." "We had decided to shoot with Walter Steiner because he's absolutely in a class of his own nowadays." "To my mind, he's the greatest ski-flyer there ever was." "His 179-meter jump at Oberstdorf was, after all, 10 meters more than the present world record." "But it didn't make him world champion, you might say just because he flew too far, and the jury had to interrupt the jumps and start from a shorter run." "So his over-long flights were all discounted." "We began shooting around New Year 1974 at the 4-Ramps Competition." "Jumping on the Schattenberg Ramp was televised live, and so we were more interested in events on the side." "These are jumpers from the Soviet Union." "Steiner, Switzerland." "Walter Steiner was still suffering from a fall two weeks back when he entered the competition." "He had slight concussions and a cracked rib." "The competition was won by Aschenbach of East Germany, who had become ski-flying champ ahead of Steiner." "It must be remembered that East German jumpers start the season highly trained, with about 10 times as many practice jumps over the year than all their competitors throughout the world." "Nobody was at all interested in the beaten Walter Steiner." "I remember sitting in school, listening to the teacher talking, and he said, "Walter, you're day-dreaming again." "What is it now?"" "My thoughts were somewhere else all over the place, except in school." "I kept dreaming of flying, made some models and plans of models bigger than I could ever build myself." "Maybe that's why I suddenly took off one night and began flying but not just 100 meters, farther and farther down the track, seeing myself suspended over the slopes and landing very gently somewhere." "It was all sort of in slow motion." "When you get to the flying part, you feel the tautness in your head, not before." "Maybe I can even shut my mouth because I feel it's superfluous, just a cramping up." "Then it's all easy." "That's when you become aware of what's going on." "That's what's great about ski-flying." "13th March." "The evening before leaving to jump in Planica, Yugoslavia," "Walter Steiner prepares his skis once more." "The running surfaces have 6 grooves to keep dead on track." "Then they're 21/2 meters long, much longer and heavier than ordinary skis." "Wax is then ironed on." "Early on March 14th, Walter Steiner leaves Wildhaus." "This is the house he lives in." "Steiner is well-prepared for the only ski-flying this year." "There are only 4 to 5 ramps in the world big enough to warrant talking of ski-flying and not ski-jumping." "We have now arrived at the giant ramp in Planica." "Today is March 15th, first day of training." "However, the organizing committee has decided this training may count for the competition, if conditions on any competition day are bad." "The weather counts for a lot here, of course." "It has begun snowing, but there's very little wind." "We've got two super high-speed cameras on the job." "They take slow-motion pictures that slow the action down 10 or 20 times." "Looking at the starting list we have here, it's surprising that there are no Soviet jumpers, nor any from Japan." "Of the East German jumpers, usually top favorites in these events," "Aschenbach and Kampf are absent." "But world-record holder Wosipivo is here, and I think we might possibly see a new world record during training even or a new ramp record, since they've set the start fairly high up, and it's not known how the farthest will jump." "Walter Steiner was nervous before his first practice jump because he heard on the loudspeakers that mediocre jumpers before him were managing fairly long jumps." "He decided on caution jumping at half-strength." "Steiner's first practice jump, 1/20 speed." "Steiner sails past all the marks." "He lands in the run-out section." "Confusion in the stadium, because they can't announce the distance immediately." "It must be a new ramp record!" "You jumped further than the critical point." "I soon realized I was going too far, but I didn't jump all out, and" "Congratulations!" "Up there, I felt like giving up." "But I realized if I let things go," "I'd fly farther and come down with a bump." "You see, that's where they're measuring." "The distance signs won't go that far." "169 meters!" "That's a record for this ramp, and it equals the Oberstdorf world record flight, though this ramp in Planica is smaller." "It was going too far from the start I realized at once." "But, still, I'm glad I stayed on my feet." "I didn't think I'd make it." "Do you think tomorrow will see even longer distances?" "No, I hope they'll be more careful now." "Is this really too far for this ramp?" "Yes, it's too far." "Otherwise they'd have distance markers if it wasn't too far." "But they're bound to shorten the run now." "Yes, that's for sure." "I sensed it." "When an American- they're not bad jumpers- but still, if they get up to 140 meters or even farther, to 150 meters, that's enough for this ramp." "And then let me come down!" "But I thought last year on the small one, it was getting too far and said so." "Then I jumped badly and almost felt a fool." "This year, I thought, "Give it a try!"" "I worked, thank goodness!" "Before the second day's practice, the jury shortened the run one section so as not to endanger the jumpers." "Yet still, Steiner was afraid he'd sail down onto the flat even with the shorter run." "We couldn't really see what happened." "He seems to have had a bad fall, and I heard the loudspeaker saying he'd jumped 179 meters." "I'll try and find out what happened." "There was a moment's total confusion because Steiner wasn't visible from the run-off tower where I was standing." "All we could assume up the tower was that this was the end of our film on the second day's practice already." "I thought, "That's it!"" "Is he injured, or could he still walk?" "We couldn't see properly from up here." "He hurt his side a bit, but it isn't bad." "But he's not sure whether he'll go on jumping." "I don't think it's too bad." "He isn't even concussed." "Up here, the run is being shortened again." "These pictures were taken just after the fall by one of our cameras." "Steiner was taken to hospital badly shocked." "Later, he told us the fall had made him lose his memory for a moment." "His distance, 8 meters above the world record, but not counted because of the fall, was told to him 5 times, but he kept asking about it." "He also tore his starting number off and later didn't know why." "Will you be jumping?" "I'm all right, but they won't believe it." "You've now exceeded all expectations." "Will you still jump?" "I'll have to see If you have any trouble with that eye later on." "You'd better come back for some ointment, but not now." "Are you jumping?" "I don't know." "I have to think." "Got to think things over." "My mind's not too clear." "Steiner didn't want to show it, but it was quite noticeable he wasn't yet too steady on his feet." "After all, his head had struck the ground at 140 kilometers per hour." "We'll be showing the 177-meter flight in slow motion." "The sound you hear was recorded a minute later on the spot in a cabin that was too dark for filming." "I tell them something, and they laugh at me and say I brood too much." "They say there's no need." "Things would be okay if they listened to one man, and that's me." "I have a right to talk that way." "But as soon as I open my mouth, they say I brood and talk rot." "So I have to prove it, but proving it isn't so funny, not funny at all." "Yes, I proved it in Oberstdorf." "But they didn't even believe it there." "They keep saying I brood too much, meaning I have to break my skull before they believe me." "It would be too good to be true!" "Well, we'll see." "Maybe they'll listen this time." "But probably they won't listen till I give up ski-flying." "We didn't find Steiner till 20 minutes later." "He'd gone off alone to the woods." "This was his great moment of crisis." "He later said people expected too much of him trying to force him into a new world record or see him bleed." "He said, "I feel I'm in the arena with 50,000 people waiting to see me crash."" "Nevertheless, he ascended the run-off tower a third time, but he didn't know whether he would really jump." "The question was whether he would ever be able to jump again." "Steiner did a third jump after all." "166 meters, again beyond the critical point, again breaking the old ramp record." "Why did you jump so soon after your fall?" "Is it psychologically important?" "Yes, if I hadn't jumped again, I believe I'd have been pretty afraid," "I mean, felt too much respect for ski-jumping." "As soon as I had a good jump just afterwards," "I knew things were okay." "That was what saved me." "Today is Saturday, March 16, 1974." "It's the first day of official competition in Planica, and they'll be starting in about an hour." "As I see, there's a problem." "It froze over last night, and today the run-down must be extremely fast." "Even yesterday they started right down, and the run can't be shortened any more." "The worries about Steiner started all over again." "Thank God, the sun soon came out and softened and slowed down the track." "Improvised field kitchens filled the valley with smells of onions, garlic, and cevapcici." "50,000 spectators turned up, and it all looked a bit like a great pilgrimage." "People had seen Steiner's astounding flights on TV the day before." "Steiner, Switzerland, will voluntarily start a section further down so as not to throw the whole series out of gear." "Walter Steiner, as far as I know, did something never before attempted." "He started one section lower down than the other competitors." "He'd certainly have crushed the competition because his incredible superiority would have caused such a shortened run that nobody would have done over 130 meters." "If the others did 140, he'd do 170 meters." "Mr. Steiner, why did you start lower down?" "Well, if anyone else hits the 140 mark," "I have to reckon on flying too far, judging from yesterday's results." "And it's scandalous that they didn't shorten the run today and even lengthened it two sections." "It's inadmissible." "Yesterday they let me jump too far four times." "That shouldn't happen." "It's scandalous of those Yugoslav judges up there, who are responsible." "Today it was wet, and I had to reckon on it being a nervous strain to start lower down, but I had to." "I couldn't take the risk." "But it makes no matter." "I want to ski-fly." "And this was the first time I needn't be afraid." "Autograph, please!" "Sunday, second day of competition." "Steiner has a magnificent overall lead." "What about the speed now?" "It's now normal." "It's enough." "It's enough." "I really had a terrific jump there." "You got 20 marks three times." "I don't think that's ever been done before." "It may have happened once, but not to me." "Not in your lifetime it hasn't." "Not with me in any case." "Steiner's flight of 166 meters was probably the most perfect ever recorded in the history of ski-flying." "After this jump, once again, too far for the ramp, they even tried to speed up the ramp once more by protecting it with silver-foil from the sun." "In addition, they lengthened the run and pressured Steiner to try one last time." "He did, but shortened his run by two sections." "Yes, they almost stung me up, surrounding me and saying the whole Yugoslav people would despise me if I didn't jump, and they'd do all they could, and what they did is, started two sections higher up." "I hope the Yugoslav public is now satisfied at least." "How far would you have jumped if you'd jumped from the normal height?" "It has to do with thermics." "The jump I've just made wasn't ideal." "I think at 111 kilometers per hour, you could reach 180 meters without difficulty." "Despite voluntarily cutting down his run," "Steiner won the competition with a lead never before achieved in ski-flying." "I once had a young raven." "That was really something." "It was still practically unfledged." "I reared it on bread and milk, and when it could fly, it used to meet me or saw me coming on my bike from far off." "I whistled, and it flew onto my shoulder and came home with me and stayed till I fed it." "Sometimes it waited at the roadside when I came from school." "Suddenly I heard it cawing." "I looked around and saw it was my raven." "And he came flying straight to me." "Unfortunately, he kept losing more and more feathers." "Maybe it was the food it ate." "The other ravens plagued it." "The row started early in the morning." "They cawed." "He tried to flee, of course, couldn't get away, and fell down." "So I'm afraid I had to shoot him." "It was a torture to see him being harried by his own kind because he couldn't fly anymore." "I ought to be all alone in the world, just me, Steiner, and no other living thing." "No sun, no culture, myself, naked on a high rock, no storm, no snow, no banks, no money, no time, no breath." "Then, at least, I wouldn't be afraid."