Climate change and equipment costs cannot be controlled, writes Santtu Silvennoinen from Oberstdorf.
At the foot of the Alps in Oberstdorf, 800 meters above sea level, there is no natural snow. Jussi Saarinen
Top skiing is on the road to destruction. Climate change has been seen in a dull way at the competition locations of this season’s World Cup, when there is no natural snow and there have been big challenges in cannon and canned snow production.
Only Norway’s Beitostölen in mid-December and Switzerland’s Val Müstair at the turn of the year have had natural snow. There was snow in Davos before Christmas, but it melted away quickly.
In central Europe, the melting of glaciers in the Alps has become a metaphor for climate change.
The photos from this season’s Tour de Ski in Oberstdorf tell the essentials: the course was marked with snow and there were several temperature degrees on both race days.
For years, the life insurance of competition organizers has been previously made and put into custody.
With this trick, it is possible to pry a few kilometers of tracks, but for many places where snow storage is difficult due to the mild weather, the plot of the couplet becomes impossible.
The organizers of the race in Oberstdorf threw in the towel and announced on Wednesday that they will not organize the Tour de Ski next year.
The conditions next to the main grandstand in Oberstdorf were dire. Jussi Saarinen
According to the rules of the International Ski Federation, 1,800 meters above sea level is the maximum competition height.
The future in elite skiing may well be that in the early season it will only be possible to compete near the Arctic Circle or in the mountains closer to 2,000 meters.
There is hardly any competition on the glaciers, as there is no sufficient competition infrastructure.
Finnish Lapland is usually a snow-sure region from the end of November to May, but Olos, Ylläki and Saariselä lack other frameworks more or less.
In January-February, there may be opportunities in the future to organize competitions in the current Central European locations. For example, Davos and Val di Fiemme have strong experience in making and preserving cannon snow.
The grass was next to the green when Jasmi Joensuu broke the Tour de Ski stage 4/7. Jussi Saarinen
In the rain of Oberstdorf, the equipment choices and lubrication were highlighted as mercilessly as they can be in top skiing. Extreme conditions will continue to be competed in, probably also at the World Championships in Planica.
It’s poison for small national ski teams, when the money and maintenance personnel are a fraction compared to the big countries.
Ski coach Kari-Pekka Kyrö recently sent a message to a few journalists in which he proposed the end of traditional skiing.
From a skiing romantic point of view, the proposal is creepy, but its basic point of view is valid: if we only competed in freestyle like biathlon, the equipment differences would not be anywhere near the same as today.
– I think it would be more justified to agree in the rules that larger countries are obliged to take care of the ski maintenance of smaller countries, suggests Iltalehti’s skiing expert Reijo Jylhä.
