The „olympic hill“ in Garmisch is the first skijumping hill in southern Germany, where you can train on the ice track. Since yesterday, the German National Skijumping Team including world champion Markus Eisenbichler, Karl Geiger and Co. are doing their first jumps as part of a training camp. And all that despite some "difficulties" that Mother Nature had prepared for the Peter Riedel GmbH during setting up the ice track.
When the ice track in Garmisch was put into operation two weeks ago, people were stunned. A big wasp colony built their nest directly in the control box of the track cooling system. With fatal consequences - a short circuit caused a fire of the motherboard. Which comes close to a total economic damage, the entire cooling system had to be replaced. The first big challenge was to organize a new cooling system within a few days - those who work in the business know that the delivery times can sometimes be months! Thanks to the perfect cooperation with the company Daikin and the fast and solution-oriented service, a new cooling system was already found the next day. Due to this incident, however, valuable working days were lost and time was running out - if we did not want to delay the first jumps on the ice track for the german ski jumpers!
Peter and his team were working hard on rebuilding the control system. In just four days, the new control box was adapted, the cooling system was transferred to Garmisch and the ice track was set up! Additionally, the warm temperatures last week were another challenge. Through the tireless efforts of the local workers and the efficient cooling system, which allows ice production up to 20 degrees Celsius air temperature, this challenge also was mastered. Thus, the jumping hill in Garmisch is the first hill in southern Germany, where you can train on the ice track!
After two very stressful weeks, we can confidently say: The „Olympic Hill“ in Garmisch is ready to jump - and with the master track by Peter Riedel, the first jumps on the ice track can now be done there!
Horst Hüttel, Team Manager Nordic Combined and Ski Jumping in the DSV also appreciates this. „Our National Skijumping Team is training in Garmisch, with both the hill and the ice track in very good conditions. Garmisch is currently the only hill in southern Germany where you can train on the ice track. I thank both the people in charge as well as Peter Riedel and his team for the great dedication of the last days. Everything is prepared for the training camp!"
IMPORTANT NOTE: When putting the ice track into operation, no humans or animals were harmed! The wasp nest was expertly relocated to the nearby forest! :-)
