Alberta’s five-man stock broker ski team met a familiar fate this year, when it took second place for the third consecutive year at the 38th annual Interbourse Ski Championship in Saalbach Hinterglemm, Austria.

The week-long tournament, which was hosted this year by the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, brings together hundreds of stockbrokers from financial centres around the world each January for skiing and other winter sporting events.

The 2006 competition held special significance for Raymond James Ltd. broker Mike Irwin and his teammates, who vowed to make a comeback after last year’s disappointing second-place finish, in which it trailed the winning team by a mere three seconds.

The Calgary-based team — captain Irwin, Dave Doig of Northern Securities Inc. , Lloyd Heimbecker of Raymond James, and Brad Hurtubise and Andrew Abbott, both of Tristone Capital Inc. — made a repeat performance this year finishing in second place again, this time lagging by half a second. Team Geneva placed first.

The race began with 20 teams competing in the first giant slalom event, in which Team Alberta placed among the top six fastest teams and qualified for the second giant slalom. With the race narrowed down to 30 skiers, Doig, Heimbecker and Irwin secured first-place standing with the fastest times of the day.

There was high drama at the very end: the 30th skier of the race, a member of Team Geneva, ended the event with a run of 1:03 minutes. Geneva’s combined time beat out Team Alberta by half a second.

“We were in the winning position until the very end, until the final racer from Geneva came down with a great run,” says Irwin. “We were so close.”

In spite of the heartbreak, Irwin and his teammates took solace from the celebration that awaited them at the finish line, where they were greeted with roaring applause.

“There was a huge crowd at the bottom of the hill; champagne was flowing, and it was just hugely exciting to be there,” says Irwin, whose team was sponsored by the Toronto Stock Exchange and Pengrowth Management Ltd.

Saalbach Hinterglemm was home to the World Ski Championships in 1991, which made it the perfect location for the giant slalom and other less rigorous events offered at the tournament. Skiers were welcome to compete in a downhill race, for which participants strapped on Atomic skis, one of the world’s top ski brands, before crouching into a tuck position and tearing down the hill at speeds hitting up to 101 kilometres an hour.

“It was an amazing event,” says Irwin, who placed third with a speed of 98 kilometres an hour. “Austrians are very fun-loving; they love their parties and it was a great time,” he says. Everyone wore lederhosen to the gala party, at which Austrian traditions took centre stage.

The tournament coincides with the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, which is being celebrated throughout 2006. Travellers from around the world will visit Salzburg where the composer was born, an hour away from the slopes of Saalbach.

The London Stock Exchange will host next year’s event, which will take place in St. Anton, Austria. This time, however, Irwin isn’t making any promises. Instead, Team Alberta is setting its sights on Interbourse 2009, to be held in Canada for the first time since 1999.

“We’re going to Whistler, B.C., and we’re going to test out the slopes before the Olympics in 2010,” he says. IE