yeah - after finishing 5th on the north face masters of snowboarding event in crystal mountain in the usa i scored enough points to overtake a few fellows and become number 2 in the ranking behind xavier. the conditions were really rough, not much pow on the face.....but well that`s part of the game. i was happy to compete at all, since i was quite sick on the plane and it was good for me that the event was postponed to the very last day of teh waiting period.
3rd place at st.moritz, the second leg of the freeride world tour!! the comp took place on the corvatsch, a mountain that seems to bring me luck since i had won here 2 times before the event became a world tour stop.
a really fun weekend in chamonix, meeting everybody of the freeride world tour crew again after almost 2 years. the organizers found a really fun face to ride on the italian side of the mont blanc in courmayeur, here it is...
yeeeah! after 22 months without a contest i am stoked about a good comeback to the freeride competition world! conditions in la clusaz were not easy, since the superwarm temperatures transformed the powder to a crusty and changeable snow. congrats to chris schnabel for his dreamline (-:
stefan häusl, björn heregger, jun orarböck and karin huttary on skis, mitch tölderer and me on boards drew our lines in the cold but super stable powder on the faces of the albona mountains in the arlberg region. 5 small hikes ment 5 fast runs with a few cliffdrops in between. not majopr crashes except for mitch landing on a rock once and doing a few cartwheels, but that was it.
.....at my home resort NORDKETTE above the roofs of innsbruck. it`s still on of the most amazing places in the world for freeriding: up there, you are only 10 minutes from civilization, but at the same same time right in the montains. sick lines in winter, unreal hanggliding in summer, great climbing, biking and hiking as well. and this is what it looks like...
what to think and feel, coming home to the tyrolean mountains after 14 months of living on a sailboat and crossing oceans?
let me sum it up in on sentence: IT IS TOO F...ING COLD HERE!!
from a constant +30° celsius to a harsh -10° upon arrival in innsbruck gave us a bit of a shock in the first days. but only until the first sunny day, when the whitecapped peaks above town reminded me why i love this place and am proud to call it home.
the next weeks will be filled with acclimatisation, getting the snowboard gear together and then ride, ride, ride. i cannot wait to sweat during the hike for a nice peak, race down my first couloir of the season and do the first powpow backside slash.
check the latest article about our trip on http://freerideworldtour.com/en/inside_fwt/focus/focus_0-2541
the freeride world tour start at the end of january, so plenty of time to get in shape.
i just received the info that i got a wildcard and will be competing in all of the 2011 freeride world tour events! i am super stoked, especially since 2011 sees an increase in world tour stops to 6 and for the first time there will be a stopover in fierberbrunn in austria. as for now, we are on our way to fidji, where we will leave our boat for the winter. keep on following us for another 2 months through the south pacific on www.sailaway.meinblog.at
5 months on the boat already! we are in panama city still, where we just spent 6 weeks preparing our baby for the south pacific. tomorrow is the big day, we are setting sail to leave the continent, heading for galapagos, then french polynesia, cook islands, fiji and so on. after passing the panama in early in the year canal we realized that if we went home to the alps and the winter now, we would not be able to fulfill our dream and cross the pacific this year, because of the approaching hurricane season later in the year. so, heavyhearted but definitely i wiped away all dreams of going home for the second part of the season. it may sound strange to you but i really do miss the snow, the mountains, the challenge of the comps, the traveling, the partying, the people, everything. but the life on the boat is just as challenging and fun as well, the work being definitely harder than back home! the weather and especially the hurricane seasons determine a sailor`s schedule here, and the work on the boat for preparations is almost neverending. our plans are to be in new zealand well before the beginning of the european winter, put the boat on the dry and come home. you can still follow us on our blog www.sailaway.meinblog.at all the way to the other side of the pacific. take care all of you, be well and enjoy the spring time riding just as we will enjoy the first waves on the reef passes of the tuamotus in a few weeks.
finally! here is, after a week of blood, sweat and tears, our new film for the nissan outdoor games 2009 in interlaken, switzerland. for more info about the event itself , also check out www.outdoorgames.org. and here it is: CHALLENGE OF FATE
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