“Avalanche” damages ski jump facility in Bischofshofen

2023-12-18 13:30:28

There is an almost 70 meter long gap in the snow on the jumping hill of the ski jump in Bischofshofen. The repair will be a race once morest time.

Where the Polish ski jumper Dawid Kubacki set the previous record distance of 145 meters in the snow on the Paul-Außerleitner-Schanze in Bischofshofen on January 6, 2019, there is no more snow on this Monday morning. You can see the green plastic brush elements of the jumping mat at this point. There was still snow on it until Saturday night. Prepared for the final competition of the Four Hills Tournament on January 6th.

Now Manfred Schützenhofer, president of the organizing Bischofshofen ski club, is standing in front of a construction site. At the distance mark of 74 meters, the edge of an avalanche can be seen in the jumping hill. Components of a net made of thick black plastic ropes protrude from under the edge. The other part of the net is down in the run with lots of snow.

Schützenhofer: “It happened on Saturday night. It had been raining off and on for a few days beforehand. This made the snow at least three times heavier.” And this weight apparently became too much for the network. It tore – and the Bischofshofen Ski Club has to have the gift box repaired.

The jump, which is up to 76 degrees steep, cannot be prepared without nets because the snow would not hold on to the plastic mats. Schützenhofer suspects that, in addition to the heavy weight, material fatigue may also have played a role: “But the net lasted for 20 years.”

Thanks to collegial help, ski jumping should be able to take place on the upcoming Epiphany. The ski club in Klingenthal in East Germany can provide the necessary replacement nets. The World Cup event there had already taken place on the weekend of 9/10. took place in December.

In Bischofshofen, specialists were at work on the steep slope on Monday to prepare for hanging the new nets. The men were secured on long ropes, and the local mountain rescue service also provided support.

In any case, Schützenhofer was happy that the incident only required repairs to property damage. This is said to be in the six-figure range, but, as Schützenhofer says during the SN local inspection, “Imagine if someone had fallen under this avalanche. We do cordon off the stadium. But it happens once more and once more that children come here to play or tobogganing. Especially when there isn’t enough snow in the area.”

The new nets should arrive on Monday. Schützenhofer says that cold nights are expected in Bischofshofen: “We’ll run the snow cannons in order to have material for preparing the slope.”

Parts of the wooden barriers demolished by the ski jump avalanche also need to be repaired. But they understand that in Bischofshofen. Eleven years ago there was fire damage from the Bengal fire on New Year’s Eve. Before the Epiphany 2023, the ski club fought once morest the foehn for the snow in the run-out – with 300 kilograms of pretzel salt from the Bauer bakery in Mühlbach.

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