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  • Davos World Cup Still a Go Despite Lack of Snow, to Host La Clusaz Races as Well (Updated)

    Davos World Cup Still a Go Despite Lack of Snow, to Host La Clusaz Races as Well (Updated)

    Davos is struggling to produce and collect enough snow for the weekend competitions, but will manage to pull off both a distance race and a sprint. Photo: Holly Brooks
    Davos World Cup organizers have struggled to produce and collect enough snow for this weekend’s competitions, but will manage to pull off both a distance race and a sprint. (Photo: Holly Brooks)

    Note: This article has been updated to include Friday’s announcement from the International Ski Federation (FIS), that Davos will host next weekend’s World Cup races as well, after the freestyle races in La Clusaz, France, were canceled because of a lack of snow.

    ***

    The upcoming World Cup races in Davos, Switzerland, have been scaled back due to lack of snow — but it’s still better there than La Clusaz. On Friday, the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced that next weekend’s canceled races in La Clusaz would instead take place in Davos.

    For the next two weekends, racers will compete in individual 10- and 15-kilometer distances and freestyle sprints in Davos. The Davos Nordic Organizing Committee, in conjunction with Swiss Ski and FIS, had already shortened the originally scheduled Davos races from the men’s 30-kilometer classic and women’s 15 k classic on Saturday, to a men’s 15 k classic and women’s 10 k. Freestyle sprints will take place Sunday.

    Next weekend, Davos will host 10/15 freestyle individual starts and a freestyle sprint.

    Athletes on a thin base at the 1.3 k track in Davos, Switzerland. (Photo: FIS)
    Athletes on a thin base at the 1.3 k track in Davos, Switzerland. (Photo: FIS)

    American Holly Brooks was among the flocks of skiers training in Davos this week before she headed to slightly higher grounds in Livigno, Italy, for her first marathon of the season at La Sgambeda on Friday.

    “Davos, like much of central Europe, is having one of the driest early winters on record,” Brooks wrote in an email on Wednesday.

    She provided a few photos to illustrate the scene, one of which (see above) showed a truck dumping snow in front of a PistenBully, which then spread it across the World Cup course.

    “The organizing committee in Davos is blowing snow at a mountain pass above (where it is cold enough) and trucking it down to cover a 5 k loop for this weekend’s upcoming World Cup,” she explained. “The effort and $ going into this project is incredible. I feel very luck that just over the mountains in Livigno, the site of my marathon, there is enough snow to hold the races on a larger, 35 k loop.”

    According to FIS, the Davos Organizing Committee (OC) produced snow high up on Flüela Pass — some 2,380 meters (7,800 feet) above sea level — where temperatures were cold enough to make it.

    As of Tuesday night, the organizers has spent more than 70 hours bringing it down to the race course. They did so using PistenBullies, which also pushed natural snow down the nearby mountainsides. That snow was then collected and transported down to the Davos World Cup trails in trucks.

    “After two tough weeks with many difficult decisions, we are very happy to present the athletes our tracks,” Adriano Iseppi, head of the Davos OC, said in a press release. “Even if we were able to produce snow only for one night on the competition area, we made the impossible possible. Many thanks to all the helpers up in the mountain and out in the tracks who have been working day and night.”

    The Davos Organizing Committee is producing snow up high for the World Cup races this weekend. (Photo: Holly Brooks)
    The Davos Organizing Committee has been producing snow up high for the World Cup races this weekend. (Photo: Holly Brooks)

    A local alpine skiing legend, Paul Accola, who now owns a forestry company, also donated his time and equipment for three days to help the organizers move snow.

    Hippolyt Kempf, a Swiss Nordic-combined gold medalist (1988 Olympics) and current head of Swiss Cross-Country, was complimentary of Davos Nordic.

    “They did an amazing job working all day and all night long to make sure that the cross-country track in Davos will be ready,” he said in the release. “We are convinced that athletes alike visitors can expect stunning competitions.”

    While Davos assumed responsibility for hosting next weekend’s World Cup freestyle races as well, start times had not yet been set for Dec. 20-21.

    Davos World Cup schedule:

    • Saturday, Dec. 13
    • 11:15 CET women’s 10 k classic
    • 13:30 CET men’s 15 k classic 
    • Sunday, Dec. 14
    • 12:30 CET women’s and men’s freestyle sprint prologue
    • 14:30 CET women’s and men’s freestyle heats
    • Saturday, Dec. 20 (moved from La Clusaz; times TBD)
    • women’s 10 k freestyle
    • men’s 15 k freestyle
    • Sunday, Dec. 21 (moved from La Clusaz; times TBD)
    • women’s and men’s freestyle sprints

  • Athletes React to Shortened Davos Races (Updated)

    Switzerland, Nov. 29, 2011
    A look at the trails in Davos, Switzerland, about a week ago on Nov. 29. Photo courtesy of Kikkan Randall.

    For some cross-country skiers on the World Cup circuit, the news that Saturday’s individual races would be shortened wasn’t all that disheartening.

    Sadie Bjornsen, who made her first World Cup podium in Sunday’s team sprint with U.S. teammate Kikkan Randall, tried to contain herself. Instead of a 15 k freestyle in Davos, Switzerland, the women will race 10 k. The men’s skate race was cut from 30 k to 15 k.

    “Sadie just did a happy dance,” Randall said in a phone interview with FasterSkier on Tuesday, when the International Ski Federation announced its decision because of a lack of snow.

    “I think maybe in the U.S. I’d enjoy a 15 k but on the World Cup, it’s a little rough,” Bjornsen said. “So this is pretty good.”

    Not everyone shared her enthusiasm.

    Wednesday Update:
    (According to FIS Race Director Jürg Capol)
    – “Approx. 3 km are ready to ski (critical snow situation)
    – Working to get 5 km with 7 snow guns and normal snow
    – Course is rather tight (not enough snow), approx. 4m wide
    – Cabling from TV persons starts Wednesday, different IT times on a 5 km course
    – No changes of starting times are possible, discussion are done with all TV right holders; so no other starting interval is possible
    – No other tracks are available, running 15 km ladies, we would have only 15 minutes before men race would start, athletes can’t test their skis and do their warm up. By having 10 km for the ladies, the gap will be approx. 35 minutes.”

    Distance skiers like Canadian Ivan Babikov had been in Davos for more than a week, training specifically for the longer events. The men’s 30 k freestyle would have been the first one in Davos since 2000. Instead the event was sliced in half.

    “This is baloney,” Babikov tweeted on Tuesday. “I was really looking forward to the 30km skate WC race in Davos. … Boooo. #BringThe30Back”

    In a phone interview with FasterSkier, FIS Race Director Jürg Capol said there was “almost no snow,” and Davos race organizers were doing all they could to make enough artificial snow for what will be a 5 k loop. They had originally planned on a 7.5 k loop and were at about 3 k on Wednesday.

    Only one course was wide enough, and given the lack of natural snow, there were no test tracks, Capol said. With Saturday’s individual races starting just two hours apart, the FIS decided to shorten the women’s event to allow enough time for the men to warm up.

    “There might be an option to get more snow (this week), but we had to decide today,” Capol said. “Of course we are never in favor to change the program, but (under) certain conditions, we have to act.”

    The forecast for Wednesday through Saturday in Davos suggested a chance of rain with daytime temperatures in the 40s and 50s, and above freezing at night.

    U.S. distance specialist Kris Freeman wrote in an email that he suspected the race would be shortened and had mixed feelings as a result.

    “The race would have been the first 30k time trial on the World Cup since (Dec. 2004),” Freeman wrote. “I think the return of this race would have been great for the sport and a challenging race to ski well.”

    However, as a diabetic, he was cautious.

    “I have not raced a 30 k time trial in so long that I was not sure how I would have dosed my insulin,” Freeman wrote. “Mass starts and time trials place very different stresses on my body. So to summarize, I am disappointed that they event has been changed but also relieved.”

    Teammate Noah Hoffman had been particularly excited for the 30 k freestyle, but was relieved to have a distance race of some sort still in tact.

    “It has been colder and snowing here the last couple of days, so we were optimistic they would pull something off,” Hoffman wrote in an email. “However, there is currently not enough snow to hold anything more than a sprint. We weren’t sure what they could do with such a short amount of time.”

    Liz Stephen was another American who had prepared for the longest race yet in the World Cup season. So far, the women had gone a maximum of 10 k.

    “I was really looking forward to a longer skate race this weekend, or just a longer race in general,” she wrote in an email. “But I could use some more practice racing at these slightly higher speeds.”

    Saturday’s individual events will start as scheduled, with the women kicking off at 12:15 p.m. (6:15 a.m. EST) and the men racing at 2 p.m. (8 a.m. EST). Sunday’s sprint races in Davos remained unchanged.

    Audrey Mangan contributed reporting.