Heiligenblut am Großglockner

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Bernhard Rupitsch Pionier-Schanze:

Hill Size:	HS 400
K-Point:	300 m
Inrun length:	160 m
Inrun angle:	27°
Take-off angle:	11.5°
Take-off height:	3 m
Landing angle:	42°

Further jumps:	no
Plastic matting:	no
Year of construction:	2011
Year of destruction:	2011
Status:	destroyed
Coordinates:	47.084722, 12.817444 ✔

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History:

In 2008, on the initiative of Red Bull, Andreas Goldberger made a special jump on a specially prepared snow hill in the Hohe Tauern National Park. The three-time winner of the crystal globe flew over the high mountain road Grossglockner Hochalpenstraße, reaching 13.5 m above the ground and a distance of 58 m. The project was supervised by Bernhard Rupitsch, a Red Bull specialist living under Grossglockner (the highest peak in Austria).
This project, although spectacular, was to be surpassed in scale by another Red Bull undertaking, planned in Guttal valley just a few kilometres away from “Goldi's” hill, located at an altitude of 2,500 m above sea level. It was to be a snow hill for ski flying. In August 2008, the slope profile diagram was ready, prepared by the famous Austrian ski jumper Hubert Neuper, modelled on the Kulm profile. At Edi Federer's suggestion, however, it was decided to move the potential ski jump location by several hundred meters to allow for even longer flights.
Despite the resistance of the authorities of the Hohe Tauern National Park, who feared excessive interference in nature, the preparations for the huge snow facility, hidden from the public eye, finally began in the 2010/11 season under Rupitsch's supervision. The beneficiary of the undertaking was to be Thomas Morgenstern, who during a special event was to get the chance to break the then world record of Johan Remen Evensen (246.5 m from Vikersund) under Grossglockner. Red Bull's secret project involved, among others, Heinz Kuttin.
From several dozen thousand cubic meters of snow, gathered in a special system developed by Rupitsch, the following were created: the inrun (with cut tracks 160 m long and 27 degrees inclination), the take-off (3 meters high and 11.5 degrees inclination) and the landing slope, the inclination of which reached up to 42 degrees and theoretically allowed a safe landing even at 400 meters. Massive wooden rails with a total length of one kilometer were erected along the landing zone. The facility also had technical tents and a coaching tower. The entire location received complete sponsor branding, lines marking the meters were also painted and boards were set up with written down the previous milestones of ski flying. At the end of March 2011, the temporary hill was fully ready for Morgenstern's record jumps.
Despite spending around 1 million euro on preparations, the event was finally cancelled on 30 March, due to the Austrian Ski Association's refusal to allow Morgenstern to participate. The federation explained this by the athlete's safety. Other Red Bull jumpers also decided not to take part: Andreas Goldberger, who was no longer an active competitor at the time, and Adam Małysz, whose end-of-career event had taken place a few days earlier in Zakopane. This way, despite the readiness of the facility and Rupitsch's team, everyone involved in the matter had to be left empty-handed: the organizers, the fans who followed the scraps of unofficial information and, above all, Thomas Morgenstern himself.
Despite the failure in 2011, Bernhard Rupitsch returned to the subject of building Red Bull's record-breaking ski jump after almost 13 years - managing the project of the facility for Ryoyu Kobayashi in Akureyri, Iceland.
Detailed information about the Grossglockner ski jump, previously known only to people involved in the construction, has emerged for the first time to a wide audience thanks to the involvement of Artur Bała, Michał Chmielewski and Mikołaj Szuszkiewicz from inSJders group, cooperating with Skisprungschanzen Archiv, who visited Rupitsch and the ski jump site in the autumn of 2024.

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Heiligenblut am Großglockner

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