Twelve days only are left until the official snow check will be made on the Saslong slope by Sepp Messner on behalf of the International Ski Federation. At the moment, only one km of the slope is sufficiently covered by natural snow whilst  another two km must still be covered by man made snow. About 30 technicians will be working on the slope starting this week in order to prepare it to the international FIS racing standards. Two races are scheduled for this year: a Super G on Friday Dec. 20 and the classic Downhill on Saturday Dec. 21. So far, there has been one Super G run on this slope. It was 19 years ago when the Olympic Champion, World Champion and winner of several Ski World Cups Pirmin Zurbriggen finished first. A particular attention will be given this year to the classic Downhill as Kristian Gherdina from Cortina d'Ampezzo would love to win the race for the fifth time, breaking Franz Klammer's record. Another promising guess could be Kurt Sulzenbacher from Innichen/San Candido who a year ago finished third.