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92% on Blue Ice

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Anyone skiing in Garmisch over the next days take note. The section of the Kandahar known as 'Freie Fall' (free fall), which has a gradient of 92%, or approx 43°, is currently covered in blue ice and is not a huge amount of fun to ski! I was there yesterday. Managed to get down it without losing it but that's about all that can be said. IMO it's plain dangerous and should be closed. Easy to avoid by taking the path that heads left at the top of it.
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@Steilhang, there's one even less fun thing you can do there Very Happy When I was there for first time, race got canceled and after 6 or 7h on hill, we weren't too keen on waiting much longer, so once we got "all racers are down" on radio, we headed down. Only that it wasn't really true all racers were down, and they started to drop by us like crazy, so only option is to wait for god knows how long, or just join them and go straight down. You can imagine how nice it is, when all of a sudden Freie Fall, for which you didn't really think it was that bad when sliding down, appears there and you are heading down 80+km/h... with backpack full of photo stuff Very Happy After some 20m through the air, few long turns under it (I was never so happy to be in race GS skis for these things), it was time for some "rest" and recap in finish area.... Like 10min standing there with shaking legs wondering what the hell did I just do. Never again! At least not with 30k eur stuff in backpack Very Happy
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@primoz, I was on my normal 'all mountain' skis with not particularly sharp edges. Was interesting! But seriously there were a number of people on it having big problems. The run out is clear, so maybe you wouldn't hurt yourself badly if you lost it, but it really shouldn't be open to the public when it's in that state.
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Honestly... 99% of "normal public" have nothing to do on that course, even if that steep part is short. So personally I don't really see point of having that thing open in any kind of conditions. But I guess it attracts people so they can brag on evening they skied down steep WC course, even if in reality they were doing everything else but skiing Smile
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There's a vid of someone here skiing it, they seem to be going extremely fast considering there are a lot of slower skiers around. They're giving them a wide berth, but even so..

The Freie Fall bit doesn't look too bad, but I presume the reality is a LOT steeper than it looks on film!


http://youtube.com/v/8QY_B6DZEsw
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I certainly wouldn't fancy doing that when covered in blue ice.
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@HoneyBunny, yep, it's a lot steeper than it looks on film.
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After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Steilhang wrote:
@HoneyBunny, yep, it's a lot steeper than it looks on film.


Hmm, this gives a bit more of an idea...

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@HoneyBunny, that also doesn't really show what it's like. According to wiki it has a gradient of 92%, where 100% is 45°. Covered in ice it'a fun place to be... not.
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Steilhang wrote:
@HoneyBunny, that also doesn't really show what it's like. According to wiki it has a gradient of 92%, where 100% is 45°. Covered in ice it'a fun place to be... not.


That looks about 30 degrees.

Steilhang wrote:
Covered in ice it'a fun place to be... not.


Nor is a flat pavement!
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https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kandahar-Abfahrt_Garmisch
Kandahar2 92%
30° is a fairly normal black run. Further up on the Kandahar you have that on the Tröglhang.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
...speaking of which... I have never been able to understand the logic of expressing gradients as a percentage. I know it's the done thing on road signs in the Alps, but it makes no sense to me. After all, everyone, but everyone, learns to express angles in degrees in school. I'm not even sure if I have understood the definition correction, but I believe it's % = vertical drop/horizonal distance. ...meaning that the percentage isn't even a linear function. I'm afraid many people will assume that a 25% gradient is half as steep as a 50% gradient, which simply isn't true.

They might as well express it in radians or give the arctangent.
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@SkiingDad, I agree. It would be easier to just express everything in degrees. Yes % is vertical difference per 100 horizontal (meters usually).
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Steilhang wrote:
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kandahar-Abfahrt_Garmisch
Kandahar2 92%


Measured on the backside of a mogul?
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@davidof, no. There are no moguls.
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For comparison, the Mausefalle in Kitzbühel, which in most pictures also looks quite tame comes in at 40.4°. Having stood there and watched the guys going down that I can also say there are definitely no moguls. Freier Fall is steeper.
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I couldn't find any pictures of it looking steeper, but I got more of an idea from that photo.

I would have thought 45 degrees is a bit too steep to allow the public on, icy or otherwise. With ice on it would be lethal!

I've (badly) skied Harakiri in Mayrhofen which looked like a wall, and that was 'only' 38 degrees.
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@HoneyBunny, Harakiri is a lot longer and has more possibilities to seriously break yourself. I don't think I would want to do it on ice.
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There is a slope near me that has a section of 41 degrees. I foolishly and overconfidently popped the lip at speed and suffered an impending sense of doom with a good couple of seconds flight Laughing
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So the Khandahar in Garmisch is 930 meters drop over 3300 meters, that's 28%, that sounds like your average blue run to me, any flatter and you'd have to push.

I mean, most of these resorts bullshit about how steep their runs are anyway.
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Steilhang wrote:
@HoneyBunny, Harakiri is a lot longer and has more possibilities to seriously break yourself. I don't think I would want to do it on ice.


It has got a decent runout at the bottom, reasonably wide and really very little to hit either on the way down or after the bottom. Plenty fall on their first turn and slide their way down it laughing that their kit is now coming down to meet them (and obviously without injury) every day.

That said, it didn't stop one of my buddies taking evasive action to avoid hitting me stopped near the side by flinging himself off the side of the piste and rolling down the brush on the left hand side. How we laughed. For about 5 seconds.
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@davidof, oh FFS. It has some flatter sections, and some sections that are not very flat at all. I ski the Kandahar quite regularly so possibly I am in a good position to judge whether it's a blue run or not. It isn't.
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Is this thread all about @Steilhang telling us he is able to come down steep icy slopes without dying?

Unfortunately I don't see a clapping Emoji
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@peanuthead, yep. It's all about me telling y'all I skied a black. Well recognised. I was considering reporting about my experiences skiing 45° couloirs next but it seems they were just blues so I won't bother.
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@davidof, Seems pretty obvious (given that it's stated in the first post) that it's the section known as "Freie Fall" that is 92%.
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@Steilhang, I was interested as I didn't know there was a pisted run with a section that steep anywhere! I still can't find a better photo. Anyway seeing as it's only a blue run I doubt I'll ever bother going there to ski it.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Steilhang wrote:
@HoneyBunny, Harakiri is a lot longer and has more possibilities to seriously break yourself. I don't think I would want to do it on ice.


Causes problems even when not icy ....


http://youtube.com/v/j45CEQ-yxbo


http://youtube.com/v/_epNa7neLwY


http://youtube.com/v/WRSEHJfKPhQ
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Väggen in Sälen, Sweden is reportedly 45° or 100%. So, of course you can do what this lunatic does here:


http://youtube.com/v/5-fxUc8ycQg

Can't confirm the angle, although I've done it a few times. (With turns!) I can confirm that it was probably the steepest I've done to date, but I haven't been in the Harakiri, though. As you can see in the vid, Väggen is also straight as a door nail.
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