Big sigh of relief in Sölden – hope for Matterhorn

Franz Julen gives courage for the Matterhorn premiere!

The president of the organizing committee laid down after the recent track inspection with the four-time overall World Cup winner Pirmin Zurbriggen: “The glacier passages will be ready prepared by Wednesday.” So feel free to use the mobile app for betting and wait for the next snow race. In addition, there are two snow depots in the last section of the course.

Now only three to four cold nights are needed “to be able to produce additional artificial snow.” If the weather forecasts for the coming days are to be believed, this wish of the 64-year-old should come true. Then nothing would stand in the way of the World Cup weekend on October 29 and 30.

Particularly as the FIS officials are said to be prepared to make a concession. Admittedly, it is questionable whether the snowmaking will be completed by the time the official snow inspection by FIS speed sports director Hannes Trinkl takes place. However, as the Swiss daily Blick reports, the decision-makers have already signaled that they want to postpone the deadline by a few days.

Passed the snow control has already the track in Sölden. The International Ski Federation (FIS) gave the green light on Wednesday for the staging of the traditional women’s and men’s giant slalom races on Oct. 22-23 in the traditional Austrian World Cup venue. There is enough snow on the glacier for the first two competitions.

The Matterhorn race causes trouble even before the start

The reason: since the speed teams have been able to train in the upper section of the Zermatt glacier since last week, a possible postponement of the snow control is possible.

A week ago, the forecasts were much worse. “If we don’t get the necessary support from nature in the next few weeks, there will be no World Cup races at the end of the month,” Trinkl feared. The preparation of the piste is further complicated by the ban on artificial snow in certain sections of the course. “For ecological reasons, we have agreed that the glacier passages on this run may not be covered with artificial snow,” explained Diego Züger, head of marketing at Swiss-Ski.

The races on the Matterhorn start at an altitude of 3,700m. The start is in the Swiss canton of Valais, while the finish is in the Italian Aosta Valley. Never before has there been a race in this altitude region. Moreover, it would be the first World Cup race to cross a national border. 

However, the venue is not without controversy. Both the extreme conditions and the date have been criticized.