World Cup venues share upgrades and excitement during inspections

By Published On: September 28th, 2016Comments Off on World Cup venues share upgrades and excitement during inspections

As the season opening in Soelden gets closer (less than a month away, but who’s counting?), the 31 World Cup organizing committees are working full force to prepare for upcoming races. Several steps take place leading up to a World Cup event, and one of them is the official summer inspection.

FIS officials, local organizers, TV producers, marketing agencies and course staff inspect the slope together and discuss operational aspects of the World Cup to ensure that everything is ready for the winter. Inspections are often the time when the world is informed of recent improvements at the World Cup venues. This year, it seems that snowmaking resources are high on the priority list for many.

Adelboden, Switzerland
A new snowmaking system has been installed on the Chuenisbaergli in Adelboden.

Alta Badia, Italy
Thanks to the success of the new parallel giant slalom in Alta Badia, the South Tyrolean resort will host races — giant slalom and parallel giant slalom — yearly up to 2020.

Aspen, U.S.
For the first time, Aspen will host the World Cup Finals this season, rounding out an epic year of U.S.-hosted races in Killington, Vt., Beaver Creek, Colo., and Squaw Valley, Calif.

Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy
In addition to the annual ladies’ speed races, the Italian resort has been chosen to organize the 2021 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. Both events were discussed at this year’s venue inspection.
Read the full report from FIS.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
A conflict with a land owner over the location of the finish area grandstand forced the organizers from the Kandahar Races in Garmisch-Partenkirchen to find creative solutions to save the races. But they did, and the 2017 races are looking very promising.

Kitzbuehel, Austria
The schedule in Kitzbuehel has changed, and now the team is focusing on the course, checking to see if there is still room for improvement.

Kronplatz, Italy
After many years hosting Europa Cup races, this Italian venue is stepping up to the World Cup level.

Levi, Finland
An updated snowmaking system will also be implemented in Levi in order to combat the lack of snow many of the venues faced last season.

Madonna di Campiglio, Italy
Madonna di Campiglio hosts a spectacular night slalom, and it’s about to get even better for skiing fans as the organizing committee enlarged the stands and finish area.

Santa Caterina, Italy
An alpine combined has been added to the program of the Santa Caterina races this year, adding to the excitement between Christmas and New Year again.

St. Moritz, Switzerland
The organizing group inspected the venue at St.Moritz ahead of this year’s World Championships, and the feedback was clear. Some adjustments will be made, but St. Moritz is on track to host the large-scale event in February. Surely, they also learned a lot from hosting World Cup Finals last March.

Wengen, Switzerland
This classic World Cup venue keeps improving its annual event. This year, they are renovating the bridge at the Kernen-S.

Zagreb, Croatia
The priority of the Croatian organizing committee is to improve their snowmaking system, following last year’s event cancellation. Thanks to the support of the lift company and the city of Zagreb, they are studying a system that would enable snow production even with temperatures above zero degrees celsius. Hopefully, fans will not have to go another year without a new “Snow Queen.”

Release courtesy of FIS

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