SIERRA NEVADA – Today Sunday, 8 February, more than 12,000 skiers flocked the slopes of the Sierra Nevada resort. An impressive figure for a resort that has 117 slopes and 32 lifts. Yet, during that same day, two competitions were held on the ski area and this without any discomfort for client-skiers nor for competitors. It is part of the legacy of this 27th Winter Universiade!
The starting area of the Giant Slalom on the “Universiada” slope
Indeed, during the bid, since some years, the organizers had an idea in mind: to create a new slope dedicated to competitions which does not interfere with the other slopes of the station.
Eduardo Valenzuela, Mountain Competition Manager for the Organising Committee of the Universiade and Manager of the Sierra Nevada Ski Resort explains: “Before, we had a lot of problems in the speed skiing competitions because the race track literally cut the main slope, that’s why we started to develop this project of “Universiade” slope, here ten years ago. It was necessary to create a tunnel to pass over one of the busy slopes but mostly we had to get permission for the new route. Be aware that the Sierra Nevada Resort is set on a national park ground and it is surrounded by a natural parks. So it is quite complicated to create new slopes. Without the Universiade we would never have hoped to negotiate with the authorities of the National Park. Here, we have created this track but we also offer our customers the opportunity to watch the competition since the arrival area is located in the middle of the resort. This is a very nice track that was created by the best specialists of the FIS. It is sunny all day, it has 600 vertical meters and I know the competitors enjoy it tremendously. It is also drawn in such a way that we can run it for downhill, Super-G and slalom, it’s really a success. No doubt it will serve for many competitions in the future. And it is important to remember that when there is no competition, the track is open to all skiers!”
Text and photos Yvan Dufour, Editor-in-Chief
