Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
DIMITER KENAROV
Bombing Sarajevo
FROM
Outside
“W
E'VE GOT PERMISSION
to use the cannon!” says Ismar Biogradlic, the coach of Bosnia and
Herzegovina's national snowboard team, with a smile. “Hurry up!”
A snowcat waits for us, orange lights flashing in the dusk. We hoist a coiled length of hose
onto the flatbed and climb up. Biogradlic, a 37-year-old man with close-cropped graying hair
and a ring in his left ear, taps the roof of the cab and yells “Go!” The driver revs the engine,
and the cat jerks forward like a tank.
After hours of negotiations, Biogradlic has finally convinced the state officials who own
Bjelašnica, a ski resort near Sarajevo and a former Olympic venue, to let him use a snow gun.
It's early February, normally the snowiest month in Bosnia's Dinaric Alps, but Bjelašnica's
trails are barely covered and entirely devoid of skiers. This is problematic for Biogradlic. In
less than a week, he is scheduled to host a slopestyle and big-air event for the Snowboard
Europa Cup—a small-budget European version of the X Games—at the resort. But Bjelašn-
ica's management, a couple of decades and one significant war removed from the salad days
of the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, is pinching pennies, and Biogradlic has only a few hours with
the snow gun.
As we grind up the hill, the snowcat churns up a stew of gravel and dirt. High on the peak,
the skeletal remains of rusted-out chairlift towers that haven't operated in 20 years are silhou-
etted against the evening sky. Around us, in the surrounding forests, red signs issue a harsh
warning:
MINES! KEEP OFF!
At the topofthe terrain park,we jump offthe snowcat. “Quickly,”Biogradlic says, shoving
a pickax into my hands. “Start digging a trench.”
The snow gun, brought up by another cat, is set strategically over the slope. While I dig a
protective trench for the hose and cables running between the hydrant and the gun, Biogradlic
makes sure the connections are tight. Enes Vilić, 26, one of Bosnia's best freeskiers, meets us
at the top and begins helping.
It's now dark, and the temperature has finally dropped below freezing. A slight wind picks
up,bendingthetopsofthedarkpines.Itfeelspeaceful,untilthecontrollightsofthesnowgun
come to life.
“Ready?” Biogradlic yells.
“Ready!” Vilić yells back.
