Dubai Telegraph - Skiing into the unknown: Beijing's man-made Olympic pistes

EUR -
AED 3.821609
AFN 73.043711
ALL 98.561994
AMD 415.734952
ANG 1.874008
AOA 948.892795
ARS 1067.239304
AUD 1.668181
AWG 1.872815
AZN 1.757682
BAM 1.956454
BBD 2.099482
BDT 124.256752
BGN 1.957817
BHD 0.392426
BIF 3074.798113
BMD 1.040453
BND 1.412959
BOB 7.185402
BRL 6.442694
BSD 1.039838
BTN 88.511732
BWP 14.441688
BYN 3.402905
BYR 20392.87375
BZD 2.092379
CAD 1.496535
CDF 2986.099191
CHF 0.93648
CLF 0.037319
CLP 1029.739995
CNY 7.591767
CNH 7.598484
COP 4556.381863
CRC 527.971385
CUC 1.040453
CUP 27.571998
CVE 110.297624
CZK 25.115501
DJF 185.171889
DKK 7.460816
DOP 63.34117
DZD 140.687327
EGP 52.961546
ERN 15.606791
ETB 132.39725
FJD 2.412966
FKP 0.82402
GBP 0.828196
GEL 2.923108
GGP 0.82402
GHS 15.285109
GIP 0.82402
GMD 74.912518
GNF 8986.65805
GTQ 8.0096
GYD 217.552711
HKD 8.081868
HNL 26.41983
HRK 7.46307
HTG 135.964135
HUF 410.690109
IDR 16866.571316
ILS 3.790359
IMP 0.82402
INR 88.614737
IQD 1362.155262
IRR 43790.051599
ISK 145.091415
JEP 0.82402
JMD 162.007918
JOD 0.737991
JPY 163.632522
KES 134.384575
KGS 90.519253
KHR 4179.356665
KMF 484.981066
KPW 936.406886
KRW 1516.386879
KWD 0.320615
KYD 0.866581
KZT 538.684863
LAK 22740.381777
LBP 93117.221839
LKR 306.450641
LRD 189.251433
LSL 19.334876
LTL 3.072187
LVL 0.629359
LYD 5.10451
MAD 10.485801
MDL 19.185228
MGA 4904.592084
MKD 61.579021
MMK 3379.349922
MNT 3535.458283
MOP 8.3185
MRU 41.508277
MUR 48.974372
MVR 16.027812
MWK 1803.102637
MXN 20.964801
MYR 4.668508
MZN 66.48881
NAD 19.335062
NGN 1610.226956
NIO 38.262788
NOK 11.815418
NPR 141.618971
NZD 1.843304
OMR 0.40057
PAB 1.039848
PEN 3.871945
PGK 4.220248
PHP 60.807174
PKR 289.478921
PLN 4.256856
PYG 8109.710445
QAR 3.781864
RON 4.974508
RSD 116.972699
RUB 104.513453
RWF 1450.570871
SAR 3.90625
SBD 8.722693
SCR 14.683216
SDG 625.834202
SEK 11.538871
SGD 1.414875
SHP 0.82402
SLE 23.721196
SLL 21817.776932
SOS 594.292914
SRD 36.476165
STD 21535.271101
SVC 9.098691
SYP 2614.168982
SZL 19.343279
THB 35.541837
TJS 11.375802
TMT 3.651989
TND 3.315608
TOP 2.436845
TRY 36.690385
TTD 7.066294
TWD 34.011368
TZS 2517.895925
UAH 43.598696
UGX 3806.235546
USD 1.040453
UYU 46.28369
UZS 13423.970506
VES 53.661818
VND 26469.117766
VUV 123.524633
WST 2.87455
XAF 656.17
XAG 0.035166
XAU 0.000398
XCD 2.811876
XDR 0.797259
XOF 656.151075
XPF 119.331742
YER 260.503326
ZAR 19.427453
ZMK 9365.323193
ZMW 28.777618
ZWL 335.025359
  • RBGPF

    -0.7000

    59.8

    -1.17%

  • CMSC

    -0.2094

    23.6927

    -0.88%

  • RIO

    -0.0810

    59.149

    -0.14%

  • CMSD

    -0.1590

    23.391

    -0.68%

  • NGG

    -0.3390

    58.681

    -0.58%

  • BTI

    0.0050

    36.225

    +0.01%

  • GSK

    -0.0650

    33.995

    -0.19%

  • RELX

    0.1500

    45.74

    +0.33%

  • SCS

    -0.0050

    11.645

    -0.04%

  • AZN

    -0.3650

    66.265

    -0.55%

  • BP

    0.0450

    28.795

    +0.16%

  • BCC

    0.5200

    122.76

    +0.42%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0200

    7.25

    -0.28%

  • JRI

    0.0430

    12.143

    +0.35%

  • BCE

    0.1150

    22.955

    +0.5%

  • VOD

    0.0900

    8.46

    +1.06%

Skiing into the unknown: Beijing's man-made Olympic pistes
Skiing into the unknown: Beijing's man-made Olympic pistes

Skiing into the unknown: Beijing's man-made Olympic pistes

When the alpine skiers take to the piste at the Beijing Olympics this week, they will do so on artificial snow in an often drought-ridden region.

Text size:

To the outsider, the idea of hosting ski events in Yanqing, in a largely uninhabited area north of the Chinese capital that is often parched, might seem alien.

The National Alpine Skiing Centre has been man-made, tucked away up an anonymous valley.

Streaks of white are etched into a barren-looking series of steep rocky hills -- sparsely forested and in places covered by huge sheets of wire netting.

The hills were once part of the Songshan National Nature Reserve.

Thousands of gallons of water have been used to create the snow on the course. There is no outlying snow to speak of.

The venue is linked to downtown Yanqing district by a brand-new motorway that shoots through a series of long tunnels and culminates in a raised jumble of roads.

A string of red bubble-cars quickly transports skiers up to the slopes past the sliding centre on the left that will be used for luge, skeleton and bobsleigh events, while the Olympic Village for the mountain competitors is on the right.

Soldiers man the mid-station of the lift, decked out in green greatcoats and oversized caps.

A road used for bus transport for the final ascent winds circuituously below the bubble-cars, marked with the venue's logo and sporting Olympic stickers.

Passengers enjoy the luxury of heated seats -- and warmed salopettes are welcome with temperatures falling to minus 15 degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit) and made even colder higher up the course with the significant chill from a strong wind that constantly snaps the national flags.

The approach to the two pistes that will be used for the speed events -- the downhill and super-G -- and technical events (slalom and giant slalom) is nothing short of startling.

As hard as it is to believe for the onlooking layman, the concept of constructing pistes and using artificial snow is nothing new.

Four years ago, skiing at the Pyeongchang Olympics was held in a location with a strikingly similar topographical feel to that of Yanqing.

There too, an army of workers were brought in to construct not only the course layouts but also, importantly, manufacture the artificial snow employed for racing.

Racers in China, however, have not had the opportunity to try out the new pistes after World Cup races scheduled in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled because of Covid-19 restrictions.

From the little feedback there has been, the course is deemed steep, with a maximum gradient of 68 percent, and is sure to be testing given its icy surface on terrain that pitches and rolls and features four of five jumps.

"This might be one of the best racing mountains in the world," boasted Bernhard Russi, the "piste architect" who has been creating courses for the International Ski Federation since 1980, having won gold and silver for Switzerland in the Olympic downhills in 1972 and 1976.

"It's going to be a very challenging course."

Fabien Munier, coach of French medal hope Alexis Pinturault, said the course was also "undulating".

"We received a few videos this summer, there are some Chinese who train and exchanged details with the Austrians, but there's really very little information," he said.

"Snow conditions should be very cold and that changes a lot of things in relation to kit set-up, skis and boots. The snow will be aggressive, grippy."

Italian veteran Christof Innerhofer said on a scale from one to 10, "I would say that the difficulty of the downhill is seven".

"You can see that it is a track designed by Bernhard Russi," Innerhofer told Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.

"There are no jumps, but several bumps and a traverse in the upper part, as in South Korea, even if overall it seems a bit more difficult to me."

Alberto Ghidoni, head of the Italian speed team, said the slopes were not for the faint-hearted, "not easy, very steep", and even went as far as questioning their future use.

"They're not for tourists in my opinion, even if here they would like to teach people to ski."

H.El-Hassany--DT