HAPPY NEW YEAR - FROHES NEUES JAHR

In my youth, the turn of the years was a "serious" affair.  Indeed, we frowned upon the noise making drunkenness that many fancied.  Instead, a few good friends would gather on New Year's Eve at one of the many ski huts on top of a mountain, devoid of running water, electricity, telephone, TV etc. It was our hideaway from all mundane life for a few glorious hours. 

At typically -20⁰ C, the air up there is absolutely still, noises muffled by the powdery snow all around us.  A few yards away the steep slope, which will carry us back into the valley later. Virgin snow as far as the eyes can see!

A crackling fire, a few simple home-made foods and an evening filled with songs and stories from the old year, while candles and torches shed a magical light into our humble surroundings. The closer we get toward midnight, our thoughts would turn gradually inward, well aware of the milestone we are about to pass and the new road we would need to travel. 

As a final statement for the year each one of us gets up offering thanks to friends and anyone that has touched our lives. 

Then, we would get on our skis, light the torches and - counting down the seconds to end the year - with a cry - or yodel - of delight to welcome the New Year, we lunge into the descent, forming two queues so as to travel in the tracks of the first two skiers. Minds are now fully alert, traversing the slope - at speed - through a starlit night, in one hand a ski pole in the other the torch to guide those following. Silence engulfs us as we hurdle downhill. Only the hissing of our skis whisking through the powdery snow on a turn, throwing up white plumes, - and the hollow whistle of a biting wind hitting our freezing noses and ears counter the stillness of the mountain. 

In all, the descend - in deep snow - often takes more than an hour, non-stop, taxing the skill, stamina and resolve of each skier to the maximum. By the time we reach the valley our faces are iced up, so are beard (in our Hippie days)- and eye brows! The rest - packed in protective gear, thankfully. Smiles all around, a hug and peck as final memory of an awesome team effort,we make our way back to a warm bed and sink into well deserved sleep.


Thus we ensured that as a first task to start each New Year, we create our own new path, and hope we reach the next milestone in one piece, iced up or not. 

May the New Year 2011 provide you with as much opportunity and focus to find your own way, too.  

Capital Markets in the New Year
As for the financial markets, expect nothing less than what you have seen last year.  Indeed the first steps will probably be the extension of a Santa rally that somehow suffered punctures in a few places in December, and is therefore in need to play catch up.  Apart from a little softness in the third week of January, this should still be a month with positive results in many indices and sectors.  


The only "spanner in the works" are currencies which are already showing signs of increasing volatility again. 


More about all that next time. 

Snow Chalet in Saalbach

By the way, the pictures are taken from official websites of Saalbach in Austria and Pfronten, Allgaeu, Germany, not far from my home town.  As you can see, the "huts" now come with all the modern comfort and the "Fackellauf" has become a tourist attraction, performed on any slope for skiers with (almost) any skill level, accompanied by fire works and flood lights. Still, it is a special experience even for today's participants.  Just the meaning of this New Year tradition may not be on everyone's mind so much nowadays: Bringing back down the New Year's Light from the mountain top to the valley and its people, a solemn, pre-Christian tradition of the Alps region.