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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.