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SKIING

Bavaria hopes ski championships boost Olympic chances

Organisers of the Alpine World Ski Championships are hoping to put on a top-class event to help boost Munich's chances of hosting the Winter Olympics in Bavaria in 2018.

Published: 7 February 2011 07:59 CET
Bavaria hopes ski championships boost Olympic chances
Photo: DPA

The world championships start in southern Germany on Tuesday with the women’s super-G, and finish on February 20 with the men’s slalom.

Having last hosted the world championships in 1978, Garmisch-Partenkirchen will also host the downhill and nordic events if the Munich 2018 bid is successful when the International Olympic Committee decides on July 6.

If Munich beats France’s Annecy and South Korea’s Pyeongchang to host the 2018 showpiece, Garmisch-Partenkirchen will host nine competition venues, one of the two athletes’ villages, a media village and media centre.

What the world championships do not need are any more high-profile crashes like Austria’s Hans Grugger who suffered severe head injuries at the start of the year in a training accident.

Just a few miles from the Austrian border, in the heart of the Bavarian Alps, the market town hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics under the Nazis.

It is now a regular fixture on the World Cup circuit and it was here that alpine skiing became part of the Winter Olympics programme for the first time.

The world championships’ slalom events will be held on the Gudiberg slope and the Kandahar course will host the super-G, downhill, giant slalom and part of the combined events in the shadow of Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain.

As a resort, Garmisch-Partenkirchen is home to several of Germany’s top winter sports athletes and home girl Maria Riesch will be defending the world slalom title she won in Val d’Isere two years ago.

She will also be hoping home turf can help her break United States’ starlet Lindsey Vonn’s domination of women’s Alpine skiing for the last three years as the German is the current leader in the World Cup rankings.

As the reigning Olympic slalom and combined champion, Riesch was born in raised in Garmisch.

She has detailed knowledge of the Gudiberg hill and Kandahar course where she defeated Vonn by more than half a second in the downhill last March in the World Cup Finals.

Germany’s Kathrin Hölzl, who won the world giant slalom title in 2009, also knows what to expect from the Khandahar course.

“The terrain is truncated, has many transitions, is tight and yet still variable before it bottoms out flat,” she said.

“I’m sure it will be a suspenseful competition and I’m really hoping for the support of our ‘twelfth man’, our fans.”

AFP/ka

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SKIING

Snow report: What’s the latest outlook for French ski resorts this winter?

Good news for skiers in France, as a mild December has given way to a cold blast in early January that's bringing some much-needed snow.

Published: 5 January 2024 14:50 CET
Snow report: What's the latest outlook for French ski resorts this winter?

After a mostly dry and mild December, snow returned to the the Pyrenees on Friday.

Meanwhile most resorts in the Alps have been able to stay open after a promising early start to the ski season, thanks to fresh snowfalls, with more on the way this weekend.

Pyrenees

Snow has returned in the Pyrenees. Some 5cm fell overnight into Friday, January 5th in eastern parts of the mountain range, with forecasts predicting a further 15cm to 20cm to be on the ground 24 hours later. The region had not seen any snow since December 2nd.

In Angles, 20cm of snow had fallen at higher altitudes by mid-morning on Friday.

Further west, numerous resorts in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département remained closed this week after early December snow had melted in mild conditions that have dominated France in recent weeks, but significant snowfall is expected over the weekend into Monday, and resorts are hoping that they will see enough to open.

One resort, Artouste, has been unable to offer skiing since the start of the season on December 23rd due to a lack of snow. A scenic rail service – usually reserved for warmer months – has kept the resort going. It is set to stop running on Friday, amid expectations of enough snow to finally open the slopes.

READ ALSO Climate crisis: ’90 percent’ of Europe’s ski resorts face critical snow shortages

Alps 

Many ski resorts opened on time, or even a little earlier than scheduled last month, after significant early snow fall, and have enjoyed deposits in the first days of 2024. But, even here, resort managers welcomed the promise of more significant snow this weekend.

Some resorts weren’t so fortunate. Ski areas in Gérardmer, in the Vosges, were still closed in the week leading up to Christmas because of poor snow conditions, but they are hoping for enough snow to finally get started this weekend, while La Bresse-Honeck was using ‘stocked snow’ made by using snow that fell earlier in the winter months to stay open as recently as December 30th.

In the Northern Alps, resorts such as Alpe d’Huez benefited from fresh snowfall on December 22nd, while Val d’Isère had new snow on December 29th. In the Southern Alps, Les Orres’ last pre-New Year snow was on December 8th.

And the French Alps have enjoyed more snow since the start of the year. There’s at least 50cm of fresh snow on the higher slopes of Les Gets and Morzine, for example, a significant improvement on the same time last year, when the resorts were among several that had very little snow to speak of.

In Chamonix, meanwhile, snow has fallen on eight of the last 14 days, with more expected every day between Friday and Monday.

Massif Central

As the post on X / Twitter shows, the Massif Central has not had the best of winters for snow so far. But between 30cm and 50cm is expected in Le Lioran by Monday. 

READ ALSO ‘So many barriers since Brexit’: The French ski businesses no longer willing to hire Brits

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