On Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th, January 2025 Garmisch-Partenkirchen will host a Downhill and a Super-G Alpine Ski World Cup races on the famous Kandahar slope.
Germany’s highest mountain, Germany’s steepest ski slope - the legendary Kandahar-Downhill racecourse-, or Germany’s most spectacular cable car are some of the reasons to watch the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Alpine Ski World Cup Races next weekend.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany, which borders Austria. It is located at the foot of Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain (2,962 meters a.s.l.).
Garmisch-Partenkirchen the former twin cities "under the Zugspitze", is one of the most famous ski resorts of the whole alpine region. The Bavarian town hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 1936, the Arlberg Kandahar races since 1954, the FIS Ski World Cups since 1970, the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 1978 and 2011, and the FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships in 2009. For that reason, Garmisch-Partenkirchen is been considered the cradle of ski racing in Germany.
Garmisch Partenkirchen (GER)
January 25th Downhill / Women 10:15 CET
January 26th Super-G / Women 11:00 CET
The Kandahar in Garmisch is considered one of the most demanding race courses in the Alpine Ski World Cup. The slope became one of the five venues for the Arlberg-Kandahar race, named after Frederick Roberts, the Earl of Kandahar.
The Briton Frederick Roberts, Baron Roberts of Kandahar and Waterford, donated a trophy for a ski race in 1911 called the “Challenge Roberts of Kandahar”. The race was held in the Austrian town of St. Anton am Arlberg in the 1920s. Garmisch-Partenkirchen has been the venue for the traditional Arlberg-Kandahar races since 1954.
The Kandahar 1, Women's Downhill and Super-G slope, starts on the Tröglhang at 1,490 meters above sea level (The Men's Downhill start of the Kandahar 2 is located at Kreuzjoch at 1,690 meters above sea level) and largely runs along the old Men's slope: After the Schußanger with its two curves comes a jump into the Himmelreich, where the start of the Super-G is located. The Waldeck with the highest gradient is a technically demanding traverse. Here a new route has begun since the adaptations in 2008: the Eishang is bypassed via the Ramwiesen, and via the Höllentor it goes back to the original Kandahar in the Hölle (Hell), a steep slope. This is followed by the FIS-Schneise, a diagonal route that, after a left-foot bend, flows into the Tauber-Schuss.
Kandahar Racecourse facts:
Start Elevation: 1308 m
Finish Elevation: 770 m
Vertical Drop: 538 m
Length: 2180 m
Max. slope: 85 %
