Sochi, Russia—Host of the 2014 Winter Olympics and host of the new snowy ski slopes on the recently built resort Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.
The mountain is composed of wide-mouthed metal pipes that face horizontally across the snow covered rocky sediment.
The arsenal design protects the slopes of Rosa Khutor, the Caucasus Mountains that will determine the next 2014 gold medalist winner of the Alpine skiing and snowboarding.
Problem is—the mountain is so new it is still under construction. The walls of the mountains contain metal pipes with jointed edges that face downward on the slopes, all to prevent an avalanche.
“It was totally virgin, a wild space consisting of large forests interrupted partly by avalanche tracks,” according to a 2012 paper written by outside consultants and officials of the flourishing ski area.
To prevent any type of avalanche, a team of experts are stationed around the mountain. They are solely devoted to preventing frozen precipitation from slipping anywhere near the contenders.
Some are stationed at the tops of the peaks and others are down at the bottom of the mountains. The shape of the mountain has been mechanically reshaped with giant black machines that knock down cornices before they topple to the ground and dams have been put up to sheer away any fallen frozen ground.
According to the New York Times, that is why there are 43 huge pipes sprouting from the rocks, each of which can emit a remote-controlled explosive burst of oxygen and propane to create artificial avalanches before large-scale natural ones occur.
“With the philosophy of controlling them very often, we think we will not have a problem,” said Jean-Louis Tuaillon, Rosa Khutor’s mountain manager, in an interview with the New York Times. Tuailon was hired largely for his expertise in avalanche mitigation at several western European resorts.
The Olympic men’s downhill skiing start 1,000 feet from the top and the women’s will start a smidge lower from theirs.
Parts of the course are still in a dangerous avalanche zone. The experts are trying their best to build dams to avoid all accidents.
These slopes are very new to them. The project only started after they were named host of the 2014 Olympics.
According to Sochi spectators, the unique snow conditions combined with specialized tracks for Cross-Country Skiing, Aerial competitions, Mogul competitions, Boardercross, Parallel Giant Slalom and Half-Pipe events will make this facility a permanent venue for top-level world competitions.
Most people ski on the Alps, but here, it’s usually quiet since there were hardly any places cleared to ski down.
Sochi hopes to continue renovation after the Olympics have passed, but until then they are on high watch making sure this mountain is tamed.