Design parameters and landing impacts of snow park jumps in Switzerland

Design parameters and landing impacts for selected snow park jumps in Switzerland were compared with the parameters recommended to increase the jumps' safety by the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (BFU). High impact zones were identified to help snow park shapers optimize the design of their jumps. A rough estimate of the influence of snow hardness on landing impacts was also provided.

During the 2020/2021 winter season three-dimensional geometries of 23 jumps were captured using differential global navigation satellite system and terrestrial laser scanning. A point mass model was used to numerically calculate trajectories. The equivalent fall height (eFH) was used to quantify landing impacts and an empiric snow-deformation function was applied to take the effect of snow hardness into consideration. Workshops were held to discuss results and transfer findings.

2D-profiles of the jumps were estimated by projecting the captured 3D position data onto the longitudinal cross-section plane. Table and landing geometry were smoothed and interpolated to a spatial resolution of 0.1 ​m, while the kicker was fitted with a 2nd order polynomial. Trajectories were numerically calculated for take-off speeds from 6 to 17.6 ​m ​s^-1 including aerodynamic forces using the Runge-Kutta method. The calculated eFH at the landing points were used to divide the landing into low-impact, medium-impact, and high-impact zones.

Medium sized jumps had a low-impact zone of sufficient length (>6 ​m) and eFH smaller than 1.5 ​m throughout the entire table meeting the BFU recommendations. Nevertheless, critical eFH larger than 1.5 ​m, were obtained when take-off speeds increased by only 1.14 ​m ​s^-1. Large jumps had low-impact zone lengths in accord with the recommendations (>9 ​m), but high eFH (2.3-3.4 ​m) occurred for table landings. 10 of the 13 XL-jumps had long low-impact zones of approximately 12-15 ​m. Besides the risk of high impact landings towards the end of the landing area, as found similarly for the smaller jumps, portions of XL-jumps had very high eFH (2.6-4.6 ​m) for table landings.

The study confirmed the existing BFU recommendations of size categories, design parameters and landing impacts limits as prevalent and practicable and provided knowledge for future safety recommendations. Modifying table geometries and taking measures to limit the in-run speeds would help reduce landing impacts, and the hazard due to hard snow conditions should also be considered.