. world ski news : Hinzenbach: Ice track in summer - 04 October 2010 - 12:21
SKI JUMPING. In Hinzenbach in Upper Austria a hill was built on which the Austrian national championships will be held on October 9th and 10th. Next year, the first international competition will be held on the HS 94 facility, where jumps of up to 100 m shall be possible, when the FIS Summer Grand Prix is making a stop in Hinzenbach.
What's special about the hill is that the inrun track is made of ice also in summer. That presents a good opportunity for the jumpers to adjust to the icy inrun also under temperatures of more than 20°C. So the Austrian jumpers will use the ice track also during there national championships in summer.
The expenditure of energy is surprisingly low and that although Hinzenbach is located not far from the Danube river and there it's considerably warmer than in the Alps.
A similar system is also used in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The big advantage is that you can use both systems at the same time, respectively switch from one system to the other in training easily. "Michi Uhrmann used the ice track in Partenkirchen and afterwards Michael Neumayer the ceramic track", said Peter Riedel, whose company is responsible for the construction of this system.
Low expenditure of energy
"We did an energy-documentation in Chaux Neuve in France where they have a similar system and then we got the request from Hinzenbach", he said to FISskijumping.
So the jumpers get the chance to train on ice already in summer without a major increase of the costs for the operators of the hills.
FISskijumping.com
01.10.2010 10:28