Kandahar

OK WM 2011 am 19.05.2008 - 11:58 Uhr

Since many years the downhill races of the FIS Alpine World Cup take place on the famous
Kandahar slope. At the FIS Alpine World Championships 2011 the disciplines downhill, super-g, giant slalom, super combination of ladies and men’s and the team competition will be held on the slopes of the “Kandahar”. The previous World Cup races proved that the “Kandahar” with its sections „Tröglhang“, „Himmelreich“, „Eishang“, „Hölle“ and „FIS-Schneise“ belongs to the most spectacular and most technical demanding downhill slopes of the World Cup Circus.

Adjustment of the race course
The requirements of the FIS concerning the racecourses of the speed disciplines foresee separate competition courses for ladies and men. From this follows that competition, training, inspection and preparation can be performed independently.
To carry out the task, some of the sections have to be enlarged, partially made newly available. During the planning the sustainable use for training activities and ski tourism was highly emphasized.

Tröglhang
In summer 2007 the cross connection near the “Trögelhütte” has be enlarged to improve the overall structure in this area. Ladies and men are now able to use the slope both at the same time. The smooth flow of organization during the World Championships and a better touristy use later on, ensures a tunnel beneath the Trögl slope. The Kandahar course can now be crossed at this main junction between “Kreuzeck” and “Hausberg” area without any risk.

The middle part of the slope
In the middle section of the slope, at the high-speed alley between “Schussanger” and “Bödele” the racecourses for ladies and men will be separated. The ladies will use the existing line, men downhill race course is placed around 50 to 100 m beneath and
joins the existing “Kandahar” again at the “Bödele”.
The splitting of the race courses for ladies and men due to increased safety demands have been submitted to the authorities and approved in April 2008. Costs for the separate slope for men do not differ from the original planning.
The new planning corresponds with the ideas of the Organization Committee about a sustainable development of the “Kandahar” for tourism and sports.
“There would be no chance for us if we present ourselves for the Olympics in 2018 with a parallel slope of more than 1 km length” argues the managing director of the organizing committee Walter Vogel putting emphasis on a sustainable and efficient funding. Also from the touristy point of view and the expected use for training and race purposes the splitting of the slopes makes sense. “All problems between racers and leisure skiers on the “Kandahar” are solved at once” is the opinion of both Peter Huber, director of the BZB and Heinz Mohr, responsible for the construction of slopes in the organizing committee.
The new development of the middle part of the “Kandahar” slope shall be realized for the most part in autumn 2008.

lower section of the slope
Since April 2008 the alteration and enlargement of the section between “Eishang” and the end of the slope are under construction. For the ladies downhill race the already existing deviation of “Eishang” will be enlarged; from there the course continues through “Hell” to “FIS-Schneise” which has already been enlarged from 16 to 39 meters in November 2007.
The men’s race course will get a totally new section: After the “Seilbahnstadelsprung” the slope leads –seen from above- to the right into a new spectacular, technical demanding part.
At the end of FIS-Schneise both courses meet again and lead together parallel into the arena.

Estimated date of completion for all the measures is fall 2008. After that, touching up will only be done if necessary until the beginning of the Championships 2011.

Kreuzjochlift
The installation of the new Kreuzjochlift is planned for 2008. The new chairlift will take the place of the time-honoured old chairlift and is supposed to cover the upper part of the Kandahar slope.
The tour for the athletes and the helpers would become much quicker and the skiers could save a lot of time and enjoy even more the attractiveness of the Kreuzjoch slope.

Dreh und Horn
The popular slopes “Dreh” and “Horn” leading down to the Hausberg station are supposed to be used for training purposes during the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. To ensure snow reliability artificial water reservoir was built in 2007 at the Hausberg and snowmaking equipment was installed at the “Dreh”. The installation of snowmaking facilities at the “Horn” will follow in 2008.