Matterhorn descent in Zermatt/Cervinia canceled

After further snowfall during the night and because of the strong gusts of wind, the organizers and the world association FIS decided that the safety of the runners could not be guaranteed. It remains unclear whether the departure can take place on Sunday. The weather forecasts are still unfavorable, including for Monday, which was originally planned as a reserve day.

On Thursday and Friday, the training runs on the 3.8 kilometer long Gran Becca route were canceled due to heavy snowfall. The edition of the races in the shadow of the Matterhorn planned for 2022 could not take place due to a lack of snow. Next week the women want to compete in two downhill runs in Zermatt/Cervinia.

ÖSV head coach Marko Pfeifer had already expected a cancellation the day before. “Unfortunately this happened during the night. There was very heavy snowfall, combined with a very strong wind. Unfortunately, they had to cancel early in the morning because there was simply no chance for a race,” explained the Carinthian.

“Unfortunately, the forecasts are not very promising either. We hope that a race will take place tomorrow, but we have to assume that it will lead to a cancellation again,” added Pfeifer. The Monday option is off the table due to the persistently bad weather.

Bad luck with the weather

For the speed entourage, the bad weather, which had already been an unpleasant companion during preparation, continues seamlessly. “If you don’t get to drive at all, it doesn’t make life easy. We’ve had a difficult summer and now we can’t do any speed training at all. It’s the same for all nations anyway, everyone would like to drive,” said Piper.

The summer training in Chile had already been characterized by atypical weather, as Vincent Kriechmayr explained. “A lot of precipitation, a lot of snow. Normally we always have very good conditions, very stable weather, this year that wasn’t the case at all,” said the Upper Austrian.

Afterwards, training sessions planned on European glaciers also had to be canceled. “We had one day last week in Sölden, which was rather modest,” emphasized Kriechmayr. You have to deal with it. “No one was able to gain an advantage, perhaps the Swiss had a slight advantage because they were able to train there. But otherwise all nations had the same conditions.”