Nesting in the small Haituo Mountains, why does the "Snow Flying Swallow" take off?

The National Alpine Ski Center has built a total of 7 tracks with a maximum vertical drop of more than 900 meters. The picture shows Guo Chaokai overlooking the National Alpine Ski Center from the top of Xiaohaituo Mountain

Beijing, January 5 (China News Network) Title: Nesting in the mountains of Xiaohaituo, why did the "Snow Flying Swallow" take off?

Reporters Guo Chaokai and Wang Hao

At the foot of the Great Wall, 130 kilometers from Tiananmen Square, on the shore of the Yushui River, sits on the second highest peak in Beijing, Haituo Mountain, on the south side of the mountain, on the small Haituo Mountain, and the National Alpine Ski Center is built on the mountain. From the top of the mountain at 2,198 meters above sea level, the seven pistes of the National Alpine Ski Center are like white waterfalls, winding from the top of the mountain to the valley.

From site selection to construction to snowmaking before the game, in this "four noes" mountainous area that once had no road, no water, no electricity, and no communication, how did "Snow Flying Swallow" nest between the Xiaohaituo Mountains? In what way will it welcome the arrival of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics?

Site selection: Repeated inspections around Beijing locked in Xiaohaituo Mountain

If you don't get stuck in traffic, it takes about 2 hours to drive to the Yanqing Area of the Beijing Winter Olympics, located at the southern foot of Xiaohaituo Mountain. The National Alpine Ski Center is located in it, which looks like a winged swallow in the distance. Legend has it that the Haituo Mountain, where the venue is located, is made up of the feathers of the Roc bird, "snow" is the element of the Winter Olympics, "flying swallow" is an auspicious bird, and the combination of the two has the reputation of "snow flying swallow".

In the past, although there were some well-known alpine ski resorts in northern China, none of them met the standards of the International Snow Federation and the Winter Olympics. To successfully bid for the Winter Olympics, Beijing must find a suitable venue for alpine skiing.

Huishiqiao, media director of the National Alpine Ski Center, told China News Network that the International Snow Federation has "hard indicators" requirements for the competition venues of alpine skiing projects, that is, the vertical drop of snowy mountains must reach 800 meters, and the length of the track is not less than 3000 meters. But in fact, there are not many snow-capped mountains around Beijing with a vertical drop of more than 800 meters.

The application is imminent, and the site selection has become an urgent problem. In April 2013, the relevant person in charge of the China Winter Sports Management Center visited Yanqing and inspected the three alternative places of Haituo Mountain, South Monkey Peak and Fenghuangtuo, and took Haituo Mountain as the preferred object. At that time, the site selection of the venue was mainly concentrated on the eastern slope of Haituo Mountain, and after field investigation experts believed that the terrain of the eastern slope was too steep and not suitable for the competition. Therefore, finding the right track became one of the important tasks in the early days.

Gao Xuedong, secretary general of the China Ski Association, said in an interview that after more than 10 field visits, the expert group preliminarily concluded that the topography of the southern foothills of Xiaohaituo Mountain can meet the requirements of the world's first-class downhill competition venue. This direction not only meets the "hard indicators" in terms of height and drop, but also designs ski tracks that are longer than 3,000 meters.

In 2014, the International Olympic Committee went to Xiaohaituo Mountain to investigate, and Xu Jianxi, secretary of Xidazhuangke Village in Yanqing District, led 6 people to climb Haituo Mountain and Yudu Mountain from different directions for more than 40 consecutive days, hiking for more than 10 hours a day, and finally clearing out a number of climbing roads from 2 meters high bushes. After surveying, testing and inspection by the chairman of the Alpine Committee of the International Snow Federation, Xiaohaituo Mountain was finally identified as the construction site of the National Alpine Ski Center.

Construction: Build a "snow flying swallow" in the "four noes" mountainous area

Once the site is chosen, the next step is construction.

But how easy is it to build a modern Alpine ski resort that meets Olympic standards in the midst of the lofty mountains? The weather in the mountains is more like a child's face, fickle. In the morning, the sun is still sunny, and at noon, there may be heavy fog, and in the later days, the fog may become heavy rain, hail, and there are strong winds above level eight, which has caused great difficulties to the construction team.

The National Alpine Ski Center is known as the "three most" projects in the Beijing Winter Olympic venues: the highest altitude, the harshest environment, and the most difficult construction. Different from the flat land and high-rise buildings, the construction of "snow flying swallows" in the high mountains, the first problem is how to transport building materials, food, water and other materials from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain. Huishiqiao said that in the early stage of construction, the transportation of materials could only adopt the original method of "people carrying horses". The project team hired dozens of mules and horses from local villagers to transport the heavy equipment for construction and construction up the mountain little by little. After the road is repaired in the later stage, the equipment is transported by truck, hoist, etc. In this way, after nearly 5 years of construction, there is now the Yanqing Division of Xiaohaituo Mountain.

In this "four noes" mountainous area that once had no roads, no water, no electricity, and no communication, the majority of builders overcame difficulties and built the first alpine skiing track in China that meets the Olympic standards. At the end of December 2020, the National Alpine Ski Center was officially completed and delivered, and the center built a total of 7 tracks, with a total length of about 10 kilometers and a maximum vertical drop of more than 900 meters, setting a record for the largest snow track gap in China, which is also one of the most difficult alpine ski competition venues in the world. At the same time, "Xuefeiyan" also has a mountaintop departure area, an intermediate platform, a competition end area, a race end area, a distribution square, a ropeway and other ancillary facilities, which can accommodate about 8,000 people to watch the game at the same time.

It is worth mentioning that in summer sports, basketball courts, football fields, etc. have clear standard sizes and specifications. However, in the Winter Olympics, in addition to the "hard indicators" of vertical drop and track length, there is no unified standard for the venue. In other words, the alpine skiing sites of different Winter Olympic Games are not the same. It is precisely because of this that the alpine skiing event of each Winter Olympics only ranks first, and there is no world record.

"In the words of the EXPERTS, alpine skiing is different from summer sports, every mountain has its own character and characteristics, and each track brings different challenges to athletes. Some tracks have larger undulating terrain so the track jump point is more, some track terrain is tortuous and complex, so there are more turns and slopes, like our track not only has very large undulations and corners, but also very rare bowl-shaped tracks, which integrate all the track technical difficulties, so the track itself has no unified standards. Whistlebridge explained.

Snowmaking: Snowmaking began last November

In order to facilitate the athletes to travel to and from their respective tracks during the race, the National Alpine Ski Center has built a total of 9 aerial ropeways and 2 towed ropeways, with a total length of 10.3 kilometers, connecting the Yanqing Winter Olympic Village and the alpine ski center areas. Take a ropeway from the bottom of the mountain to the beginning of the race track at the top of the mountain, which takes about 30 minutes.

When the reporter visited the National Alpine Ski Center, it was the middle of winter, and the outdoor temperature once fell below minus 10 degrees Celsius. The staff of "Snow Flying Swallow" is making final preparations for the Winter Olympics.

In the peak departure area, the reporter occasionally encountered Chinese and foreign workers holding skis and tools. Seven tracks and technical roads at the National Alpine Ski Centre are covered with snow. The mist of water sprayed by the snow machines installed on both sides of the track naturally atomized in the air, quickly condensing into snow falling from the sky, and then the staff controlled the snow rollers to flatten the layers of snow.

Snowmaking at the National Alpine Ski Center will start from the top-down, starting from the peak departure area, starting from the summit area of the racing training trail and technical road, and gradually moving towards the end area. In order to ensure that the maximum speed of the racers can reach 130-140 kilometers per hour, the International Snow Federation has strict requirements for the hardness of the slopes, so snowmaking is one of the most critical links.

Whistlebridge told reporters that on November 15 last year, the venue began to make snow work, in mid-to-late December to shape the snow tracks, and two or three days before the official competition began to make ice-like snow. According to the requirements of the competition, the surface of the slope must remain crystalline, similar to the ice surface, and this snow is called ice-like snow. Ice-like snow reduces the friction between the snowboard and the pistes, making the pistes less susceptible to destruction and keeping the surface of the pistes flat and smooth in the case of high-speed turns by athletes. In this way, no matter how many players appear, the state of the pistes is in a relatively perfect state to ensure the fairness of the game.

From site selection to construction to snowmaking, in the past 9 years, "Snow Flying Swallow" has risen from the ground in this "four noes" mountainous area and nested in the Xiaohaituo Mountains. At present, the snowmaking work of "Xuefeiyan" is still in progress, and the relevant preparations are being carried out in an orderly manner, just waiting for the official arrival of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. (End)

Source: China News Network