While I am here on rehab, my crew does a great job like alwasy. It's always a good feeling when we return from our annual spring maintenance trip and know that we've successfully gotten a few more skijumping hills back in shape. The first trip of the new 2025/26 season took us across Germany, into the French Alps, and back through beautiful Austria. The car display showed no less than 2,500 km after last week when we returned home. It was a challenge for both man and machine to efficiently inspect, maintain, and prepare three stations in just a few days.
The first stop took us from our company headquarters to Hinterzarten in the beautiful Black Forest. There, we performed the mandatory annual maintenance every year. This includes checking the track, checking and maintaining the cooling system, and even putting the winch and milling machine through their paces.
The journey continued to Courchevel. The village of Le Praz, where the hills are located, is picturesquely situated in the French Alps at over 1,300 meters above sea level. It's been a while since we were here. 2019, to be precise, as we weren't responsible for maintenance in recent years. Since the local ski club took over from the municipality last year, we're back on board, which we're very happy about!
We arrived with a full team for the initial inspection, as we didn't know what to expect. We worked through everything little by little, and in conclusion, we can say: All good! The track is actually in excellent condition and has many more years of life ahead. "Track upcycling" – as we call it, when the track is dismantled and rebuilt elsewhere – would also be easily possible.
The last stop on our road trip took us to Tschagguns in the beautiful Montafon region. Due to the extension of the FIS certificate, a few things had to be implemented and updated here as well. In addition to a complete overhaul, we installed a new gap cover and our new 3D cutter system (more on that later). So, nothing stands in the way of FIS-compliant competitions here either!
In conclusion, we can say that thanks to our established maintenance procedures, it was a truly smooth and efficient maintenance trip. Every employee adheres to the established procedures, most of which we document digitally. This keeps administrative effort to a minimum, allowing us to focus on the essentials. Every maintenance job is carried out quickly and efficiently, and no unnecessary costs arise.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Riedel
