The birth of the "Blue Avalanche", 48 years ago thanks to the five of Berchtesgaden: it was January 7, 1974 ...

Gros, Thoeni, Stricker, Schmalzl and Pietrogiovanna, a masterpiece in the Bavarian giant that brought that squadron straight into history. A memory that deserves.

Friday 7 January 2022 2 minutes reading time

They called them the five of Berchtesgaden, within a few days (the idea came from a great journalist like Massimo Di Marco) they became the symbols of Italian skiing transforming into the "Avalanche Azzurra" which, in those years, was dominating the white circus . Piero Gros, Gustav Thoeni, Erwin Stricker, Helmuth Schmalzl and Tino Pietrogiovanna, in series from first to fifth in the third giant of that World Cup season, on the snows of Berchtesgaden, January 7, 1974; never again like that day in Bavaria, in the history of our skiing, with the Norwegian Haker first of the "humans", behind the squadron led (it was his second year at the helm) by Mario Cotelli, who passed away in November 2019 after having lived with his boys a unique epic, made up of world and Olympic titles, but above all of those five consecutive crystal balls, from 1971 to 1975, with the poker of Gustav Thoeni and the gem of Pierino Gros, right at the end of that 1973/74 illuminated by the magical 7 January. With Massimo Sperotti to "recover" the blue standard bearers for a historical photo, unexpected given that Pietrogiovanna, the "Tino", was capable of an extraordinary comeback to complete a legendary five.

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