Before the official start of ski flying in Vikersund tomorrow with the FIS approval, we'd like to introduce you to a technological innovation. We can't tell too much yet, as it's still a prototype. However, we can say this much: it's revolutionary and will massively simplify the application of the ice track for organizers and ski jumping operators.

For the first time in history, this approach sets a new technological standard in ice preparation for inrun tracks. The project aims to significantly reduce the manual and physically demanding workload for ski jumping hill operators and to technologically optimize the reproducibility and quality of the ice.

Specifically, this means: Until now, it was a laborious process to fill the track with slush by hand for hours, bent over and on your knees. This snow-water-slush mixture was then cooled by the cooling system and finally froze into a block of ice. This "ice installation," as we call it, requires at least two to three people working for several hours, a physically demanding task. In the future, this will be handled by a fully automated 3D ice printer.

This "3D ice printing process" enables the production of homogeneous, crystal-clear, and transparent ice along the entire inrun track.

Now for the technical details: This clear ice ensures direct heat transfer (1:1) between the cooling unit and the ice surface, guaranteeing maximum thermal efficiency and maintaining a more stable track temperature.

For many years, various technical solutions for ice track preparation have been tested. With the newly implemented process, we are on the verge of developing this technology for industrial use and implementing it reliably. As a result, the annual ice installation can be fully automated in the future – without additional irrigation lines or manual setups to apply the slush to the track. This significantly increases both operational reliability and the precision of the ice structure.

If today were April Fools' Day, our 3D ice printer would probably be met with uproarious laughter. To a certain extent, that's understandable, because imagining a 3D ice printer sounds like buying a bag of compressed air at a hardware store. In other words, sounds like nonsense.

But you can see for yourselves here in Vikersund that it's actually possible. We've "printed" the finest ice track along a 136-meter inrun track.

Yours sincerely, Peter Riedel