World Cup Surface

[François Pugh]

Reminds me of skiing during/just after ice storms (e.g. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ice-storm-1998-1.4469977 ).
Razor-sharp edges required!

 

[Swede]

Hahnenkam is one of the "harder" courses and I have heard numbers of 600-800 kgs (litres) of water in every cubic metre of snow. As much as I like it firm, that's what I want in my drink. Not under my skis.

 

[Primoz]

This one is just light early on morning during coaches inspection. I know guy who took this photo, and I was there that year going down the track, and it wasn't anything really special. DH races in general are not really super bad. SL race on the other side was a bit "different", even if it didn't look like this, and when I came to press center, photo chief said "you can go on course with skis, but I still wouldn't suggest". I still went as I really hate walking up the slope, made it down just fine.. sort off , but wasn't really as easy as on DH track

 

[pchewn]

I have heard numbers of 600-800 kgs (litres) of water in every cubic metre of snow. As much as I like it firm, that's what I want in my drink. Not under my skis.

Yeah, pure ice is 919 kg per cubic meter , so that is nearly pure ice....

 

[newfydog]

Are they going to let you ski it after the race is over?

I have done that a number of times. The Olympic Super-G at Salt Lake was firm, but fun. The WC final GS in Sestriere look like it would not be too hard, with warming temps, but a few of the gates were real eye-openers, laid into the downhill ski and found nothing gripping.

 

[Roundturns]

View attachment 85123 Hahnenkam is one of the "harder" courses and I have heard numbers of 600-800 kgs (litres) of water in every cubic metre of snow. As much as I like it firm, that's what I want in my drink. Not under my skis.

That pic captures how hard and icy really well. I have skied over at Beaver Creek weeks after the DH and the surface was still slick.
TV doesn't really show you how hard- icy the surface that perspective is lost. Kind of like golf on TV when the pros are hitting driver, the camera shots do a great job of tracing the ball in the air and they report the distances but you really don't get a perspective on how far these guys are actually hitting the ball.
If you're skiing on the WC you're the real deal for sure.

 

[Snuckerpooks]

I feel like there was a recent Slalom Tokyo Drift instgram post that is relevant to this...

 

[Ottoclave]

If you can't see the grass or rocks through the snow, then it's not really ice. That Wengen course reminds me of Sugarloaf after one of the February thaw-rain-freeze cycles.