Wandering off away from the pack...

Surf Festival Izola 2013

2013-06-03T10:21:00.002+02:00

Rain or shine.. all for us :P

Time passes quickly and May has moved on faster then you could spell it. So it was time again for us to head to Izola for the now anual, second SURF FESTIVAL. The weather forcast was better then last year and we were happy to spend some time in the sun. I picked up a windsurfing buddy from Germany at the trainstation in Ljubljana on firday and after a chillaxing evening with Seba we were off on Saturday morning.

Andraž will teach you proper windsurfing :)

And Iztok will teach you the wave part :)

So we had a nice chill day with Nejc, Seba, Anja, Rene, Iva, Tanja ... to keep it short a lot of our friends were there. Most of the surf, windsurf and kite schools presented themselves with there summer destinations, reselers were selling loads of new stuff and the wibe was great in the sun :)

Our Grillmeister...

feeding fellow phonographer Miha Godec.

I won´t write to much so just check out the gallery :P

Of course the entire happening was rounded up with a few competitions, a SUP race and a Tow-In contest. Rene, Seba, Žiga and Žan were supposed to ride the Tow-In comp, some of them for the first time, but that was when the weather made a quick 180.

Preparations for the Tow-In

The powder follows me everywhere XD

In the afternoon a storm front formed and had us engulfed within an hour. The stormy water made it imposible to ride while towed so the Tow-In had to be canceled. Oh well better luck next time.Damn I was so looking forward for taking a few good shots :P

Riders in the Storm

Fortunately the rain didn´t stop the grills from grilling and the DJs from playing so it was time for "Riders in the storm" under The Red Bull tent. And since the night was young we, after some pizza and relaxing at the parking lot, went to the after party that followed at the Moby dick bar in Izola. We even got a few snacks there and the service was excellent :)so go check it out if your in the area!

Longboards are in these days :P

For the rest I´d just add that snoozing in the drivers seat is not as uncomfortable as it might sound. We awoke to a sunny morning and topped it off with some Banana Split in Koper before heading back to Ljubljana... after all the action we really did need some sleep :)

Cervino Matterhorn - There were a few more lines...

2013-05-24T21:16:00.002+02:00

Quite the backdrop for our merry international band of skiers :)

The spectacular Mezzalama was behind us and being tired I stayed another night at the excellent Nue de st.Anton. The forecast was looking good for the morning and since it would be the last day of operations on the Cervino side of the Matterhorn resort I decided that I would ski a little more and test my new Ferrino gear ;)*.

Well as I said the hotel was so great with a bathtub and amazing cuisune. I love Italian hospitality :P Also the Hotel manager was a really nice guy (who knows his Slovenian wine ;)) and a freerider so at the morning while checking out I saw that he was also going skiing,and he asked if I`d like to join him and a few friends for the last season day at Cervino.

A few minutes later we were joined by two freeriders (German and Slovakian originally), now from dear Canada, who were spending some quality time in z Alps :). We did a few nice lines that you can see here:

On to the foot of the Matterhorn after a small hike.

The Cervinio side

Kleinmatterhorn

Kleinmatterhorn steep fun :P

I am a little angry at myself for not charging my GoPro the other day coz those shots form the ride towards the base of the Matterhorn/Cervino would have been really nice. It was also great to have a local with us to show us the way and keep us clear of all the creavases. Also the snow was surprisingly good up until 1 pm.

We said goodbye and parted ways because I still had to go up to the Kleinmatterhorn top at 3850m for a little nostalgia :P Haven`t been up there since I was like 15 :P

Quite a nice thought :)

Checked out the park .. wasn`t much left but is up and
running now again ...

It was a really unexpected last day and the terrain in the area is absolutely amazing. There are just so many lines left to do there that I will defiantly come back :P

Quite the view :)

So here I am now... two weeks later. Sitting at home in rainy Ljubljana, the mountains just white again with 20 cm of fresh, reminiscing this awesome season. It was really amazing and I can`t say how happy I am for these awesome experiences. So at this point I have to thank all off you friends riding buddies, readers, companies and people who make freeskiing what it is. An awesome experiences and a way of life. The dedication is unparalleled and I hope to see all of you again next season starting with the Stubai opening and maybe in the summer on Hintertux or Dachstein for a few nice parkdays. And remember !

Mehr Mensch sein :)
Be more human :)
Uomo prima di tutto :)

Stubai, Samnaun, St.Moriz, Valtourunce

2013-05-21T10:26:00.000+02:00

Checking out post season in St. Moritz

Well of course my last parkday of the season would be Stubai. Naturally. Being my favorite park location for 3 years straight I just love that place. Also after the awesome setup that Nejc and the Schneestern crew built for this spring one would want to take a tent and just not leave at all. So after Kaunertall, when everyone was to tired I couldn`t sit idle in Innsbruck and just had to ride. So I headed up to Stubai for one more kicker day and I even managed to meet a good friend who I haven`t seen since Portugal :):

It was parktime again at Stubai :)

The sun came out occasionally.

But it was fun to bump into an old friend :P

Then said goodbye to he ZOO for the season :(

And before heading back down to IBK could`t resist a
Leberknödl soup :)

Snow was already melting :(

Then Friday came and I had to transition myself to Italy. Mezzalama was less then 48 hours away and in light of cheap gas in Samnaun 0.9 EUR/l diesel, I took the scenic route through Haidiland swizzera. I`ll just let the pictures speak :)

Ahh Swiss again... Haidiland XD Deine Welt sind die Berge :P

Took a stroll trough fancy St. Moriz

Karl was looking down on me in an alley..

The whole town had kind of a gost town feel... shops closed, no people... creepy

That`s the Royal suite.. the whole top thing...

Even found some sort of deserted miniramp next to the local
"international - speak money - highschool". No swiss people
studiin there XD

Had enough of St. Moritz and found a nice Resort... Silvaplana...

Lots of interesting terrain for next season to explore....

Next to it the castle from the 80s action sport classic from BOGNER titled FIRE, ICE AND DYNAMITE ...
bet you remember that with
Mr. Bond ROGER Moore XD...

Then I found this creepy mansion next to a cliff side and

20 mins later I was already in Italy.

After that the Mezzalama was on. Read up on that in this post and check out the pics and the video if you haven`t already. Next up will be a report on a few more powderlines at Kleinmatterhorn/Cervino... so stay tuned !

And I`ll be doing those lines in style :P

Oh and the race started at 5 AM

And there were lightspheeres

And Fire XD

g+ and Photo section update

2013-05-20T13:34:00.003+02:00

Neat and new :P

Well since Google revamped g+ I decided that it is time to update the blogs presence on said social media platform. I will be using it more to post pictures directly from trips so check it for up to date and online stuff come winter. Of course you will still be able to read up on the adventures in the blog articles :P

Also check out the added pictures in the photo portfolio section under http://awayfromthepack.blogspot.com/p/photography.html

COMMENTS APPRECIATED :)

So if you haven`t yet add to your circles and click the follow button on the side :)

Kaunertal Spring Classics 2013

2013-05-18T13:40:00.002+02:00

The LINE team in action !

So here I kick of the last posts before going into summer surf mode. The Season Finale was on in between the two mega events at Cervino with the Mezzalama Trophy (check reports here) and the Surf Worldcup at Podersdorf (report coming next week). But before that, read part 1 of 3 from the Season finale:

123.. fun fun fun.. kikerline

Two days after Podersdorf I was checking the weather eager to know when and if the Mezzalama Trophy would start. It was a late Tuesday. I was exhausted from the podo surfworldcup weekend and still undecided where I would stay for 1. of May. Stubai didn`t look to good weather wise, and I was not that keen on driving alone to Innsbruck for 4 hours... let alone packing my stuff :P

LINE Team filming some kicker action.

Called +Aljoša to see what the situation was on the ground. That`s where I got the motivational boost required. He just said. Check the Kaunertal weather. So I did and 20 minutes later I was on my way back to Innsbruck. Next morning after picking up Gabi and Tschini we were off to Kaunertal.

LADA Samara. the car for the alps!!!

As it is spring in Kaunertal the park is shaped for the Kaunertal Spring Classics sessions. Somewhat of a definitive YES PLEASE for the season ending park slush fun. While driving there, we also learned that a Russian Made Lada is the perfect car for Kaunertal. Some dudes came all the way from the Ukraine to ride the park in a really nicely pimped Lada that goes well trough corners.. ok maybe not as well as my german zoombie survival kit vectra tank but still ... impressive. And on our way back we even found, probably the only LADA seller in Tirol... in the middle of Kaunertal.

There was quite a crowd chillin at the park :)

I knew that the LINE Team would be shredding the kickers so I took a few shots from people having fun in the park during a little ride brake :P. Check the gallery bellow:

There was also a nice ski test of the same brand going on so Gabi got to test a pair of new toys. She seems to have liked them form the looks of it.

Padawan Gabi would have loved to keep these babies XD

We had an awesome day. Park was nice and it ended with a little snow then rain and then sun again. Of course we had to stop at the colossal dam that is build in the valley.. gotta luv monster constructions !

The dam at Kaunertal.. so huge !! When did the Austrians build all this stuff into the alps :P

Oh and riding was going so grate that I actually managed a nice 5 that I had not done since my first injury two years ago ! So I was superstoked :)

Mezzalama Trophy 2013 - Video coverage

2013-05-17T09:52:00.003+02:00

Endurance.

You can also watch the official coverge of the race if you find the time and spot me somewhere in the finisharea. First three who do get a beer :P And even more stuff is online on Facebook now !

Mezzalama Trophy 2013 - Photos

2013-05-15T11:51:00.001+02:00

My favorite shot from the race. Love the light !

It was an exciting race and so where the pictures. Snowcat and Heli availability, all so we could take the pictures we wanted. So without more text since the last post was pretty long check them out. From beginning to the festivities at the end.

And if you like what you see or want some pics in better quality, as usual, drop me a link, friend me, send an mail or write a comment :)

Mezzalama Trophy 2013

2013-05-14T10:03:00.002+02:00

5 minutes before 5AM in Cervinia ! Everything is ready.

Well after a long week of debating and the weather doing what it saw fit on saturday May 4th at 5 AM it was on. The 19th Mezzalama Trophy, the big "marathon of the glaciers", to which I got invited by it`s main sponsor Ferrino, started in picture perfect conditions at the base station of the Breul-Cervnia cable car. The decision to postpone it for a week was definetly the right one.

What a view. Sunrise at Cervino/Matterhorn.

After arriving in Valtournenche the day before, getting to meet everyone form Ferrino and going trough the technical briefing a awesome dinner and no sleep I was eager to see and document the race.

It was amazing 300 Teams started in 3 lines and were off with a superb tempo in the dark of night. The organisation was great. As soon as the start was on we took the cablecar up, and then a Snowcat to the Monte Rossa plato. The first team arrived just minutes behind us. They were really going for it. While on our way up we could also witness a perfect sunrise at the Cervnio/Matterhorn. The beauty of it was amazing.

Cats were moving us up fast so we could
arrive before the competitors for photos.

The teams were making good time and three Helicopters were cruising, around helping us to get good shots. So we stacked up quite some Helitime :) It was really a superb experience.

The race itself works on a time-out clock. So all the teams that manage to pass one of the 4 checkpoints in a certain time can continue. The others are eliminated. Since the timing is really aggressive only a handful of teams make it to the end. It takes the winners a little more then 4 hours to pass from Cervino (2050 m) over around 43 km and up to 4100m to Gressoney-Le-Trinite (1650 m).

It is a long way from Cervino to Gresseoney.

We had really good luck with the weather, as it was one of two sunny days between quite a strong snowstorm that brought 50-70 cm of fresh powder. More on that in the next post as I unexpectedly managed to squeez another powder day out of the season at the Kleinmatterhorn for the very end :P

When the teams passed the checkpoints we descended to Gressoney to await the finish. Also two TV teams were broadcasting and you could watch a live-stream online or on italian sport TV RAIsport.

Steep and fast.

Supportcrews oversaw the
saftey.

As for the results, first of I have to say that sadly this year there were no Slovenian competitors at the race. I did some research and saw that in the last trophy two years prior a Slovenian competitor named Nejc Kuhar, in combination with two Italian teammates almost made the podium. They were 4th back then.

Surprisingly the winners this year where the Italian Army Sports Centers team with Manfred Reichegger (IT) ,Damiano Lenzi (IT), Matteo Eydallin (IT) with a time of 04:16:37. IT was close as the franco Italian LaSportiva team with William Bon Mardion (FR), Mathèo Jacquemoud (FR) and Kilian Jornet Burgada (ES) was only one minute behind, finishing with exactly 04:17:37. at third the CAMP/SKITRAB team of Michele Boscacci (IT), Pietro Lanfranchi (IT) and Lorenzo Holzknecht (IT) made it in 04:28:27.

The most seasoned veteran of the race
receives a reward and has some good
wisdom to share :)

Gressoneys mayor
congratulates

Another surprise came in the womans teams as the favorites Gloriana Pellissier, Mireia Mirò and Laetitia Roux had some dificulties at the Monte Rossa plateau. Laura Besseghini, Raffaella Rossi and Elena Nicolini from LaSportiva took advantage of the situation and build a strong lead until the finish. They managed it in 06:04:14. The differences between the female teams were a little bigger. Second the Locatelli/Richard/Cazzanelli Team came in with a time of 7:27:25 and third was the Bandavej KRATOS team. Time 07:44:04.

Almost at the finish !

Conditions were complicated

All in all we all hailed the organizers for a perfectly executed race and Adriano Favre’s staff of alpine guides for the great security management in these really difficult conditions. The inconsistent weather and the amount of snowfall made it really hard to secure the competitors form harm. Avalanches and covered crevasses at the glacier were a constant danger that had to be counted on.

Nasty ! Competitors had to pass avalanche fields.

With Rossana from Ferrino
at the finish line

Having fun with Luca and Sara :)

With a almost 50 % foreign participation the Mezzalama is gaining more and more international appeal and is defiantly a thing one should go see as it is a really unique experience. At this point I would really like to thank everyone from Ferrino(Anna, Rossana, Luca, Sara, Marco...) and the Mezzalama organization (Andre, Reccardo) for making me feel welcome and giving me the opportunity to make my first ever heli to heli shots :) and specially the girl from the Cervino Lift company who was so nice to close the windows of my car that I left open by mistake so I could continue to photograph the race :) Also my Italian improved 10-fold when I was there :) Un spectaculo perfeto !!!

IZOLA Surf Festival 2013 tease

2013-05-13T09:15:00.001+02:00

In all flavors this year :)

Before I start another set of winter posts from all over the alps later today FROM the last two weeks there is an event IN two weeks time on the Slovenian coast that you guys totally should not miss. Like last year the Slovenian Surf festival is taking place and it should be quite an awesome venue to meet all your friends and have some fun on the water as well :P

So I hope to see all of you in Izola in 3 weeks on June 1. And if you wanna see how it was last year check out this post ;) Admission is of course free :) For the location check the post location on the side, but it wont be hard to find once your in Izola :P

Mezzalama Trophy postponed due to snowstorm... so lets go Surf !

2013-04-25T23:42:00.000+02:00

Use the waiting time excesivlly :P

It has been an interesting two weeks, since we first descended on the perfect spring Park at Stubai. In between there was also one of the most important fairs in the ski industry, the INTERALPIN, more Stubai, some Ischgl with a little detour to Switzerland. But more on that in another post. As some of you will remember, at the ISPO in February I had the opportunity to be invited by Ferrino, the Italian outdoor brand, to one of the biggest ski mountaineering events, the Mezzalama Trophy at Cervinia on the Italian side of the Monte Rossa, next to the picturesque Matterhorn. Originally scheduled, to take place on saturday, the weather did not agree.

Ironically, as I'm writing this, a snow storm is moving into the area, promising to bring 50 the cm of fresh powder and around 2200 m. The race is thus postponed until sometime next week. Safety comes first, specially in the mountains.

While I will definitely be reporting from the race later next week, and while I'm at it also test some of Ferrinos gear, the entire thing also has a good side.

At the same time every year, the windsurf season starts off with the surf World Cup at Podersdorf. Since I can`t be at two places at once even touh I have a twin brother, I thought that this year, for the first time in four years, I would have to leave it out. I wasn't so super thrilled about it, because it's the only time I see a lot of my friends before we scatter all across the globe for the summer season. Now, thanks to the great unpredictability of whether I might be able to do both. So be sure to check back in the next couple of days for a few sweet windsurfing pictures and reports. So for the the first of may its going to be a mix of powder and surf :P

Springtime for Stubai and Austria...Spring Sessions are on !

2013-04-06T19:48:00.003+02:00

Almost ready for Spring Primetime :)

Well who ever of you understood the subtext of the title will defiantly be a fan of good comedy. But unlike The Producers the produce at Stubai Zoo for the coming Spring Sessions, regardless of the continuing winter, is excellent. We took a pre opening spin of the park so check it out :P

One container is now also at the beginer park side :)

As a standard for this season I packed my shit together yesterday and head out to Innsbrooklyn again for a week of work related learning, some Interalpin education and of course riding some park.

Since one of our good Slovenian rider buddies and all around shaper and legend Nejc Kralj left our little Rogla not a day after the freestyle week he and the boys form Schneestern were hard at work creating the setup for the Spring sessions, the annual second coming of the hugeness that is the Stubai park.

Hmm what to do here XD

Well whats new. First of the medium line has been moved to the beginner part of the park. It now, when finished on Monday will be a six kicker line for everything up to 10m :P awesome for progression and speed shaped to perfection. Today we didn't even need speed checks it was just perfect out of the box and so were the other obstacles. Speaking of these the line will end in a new Wallride that is due to arrive in the next days.

Forcast was utter crap again. Clouds everywhere .. but then
at the top ! Superduper sunshine :)

All the regular Stubai obstacles are there and of course the bellowed down-rail that is now non sticky as tested XD.

On Monday the big kickers will also be open and the 3nd one that always had speed problems has been replaced by a nice long table that is due to give you ample of hand planting fun XD.

So if your in the area until the 20th of May the setup will be full and maintained daily to satisfied your already way to high standards of park quality !

Check it out ! Five more weeks to go this season so make em count ! Spring Sessions are on and on the 20th the DC Happy Hitster Hancout

Le Setup 2013 :)

ROGLA FREESTYLE WEEK 2013

2013-03-26T11:07:00.004+01:00

Action on the Nitro obsticle. Photo by Blaž Vizjak

And so it is behind us. The freestyle week. Tons of partying boz and riding park. This year a few of our friends from Austria and Germany joined the fun.

First of we didn´t trash the apartments, but partymayham ensued anyway. All the usual suspects were present in more or less sober state and it was really nice to shred the park again and ride some kicker on my new park skiz. They are sweet. But that was not the only thing we did :P

Check out the pics :P

One of our friends Tobi, from Übersee near Chimsee from beautiful Bavaria also does Skikite and Paragliding. Since the weather was nice on day one and day two before another megadump arrived on sunday, we took for the wide opening where the Biathlon tracks are and Tobi tought us the basics of handling a Kite. All in all superfun but it didn´t stop there. He also had a new Parachute with him so we went downhill to look for a suitable Field to try ourselfs at that.

Granted I never thougt I´d try paragliding (since I never managed to finish my sailplane licence) but I did and it was awesome. All in all it was a great weekend and I was so tired from not sleeping that I still have some catching up to do in that regard.

Special thnx also go to Rogla for hooking us up with a place to crash and making this event possible with a super park and a great shapercrew ! We will definitely be back next year and then Blaž will ride too when his knee is fixed and Tobis and my colarbone should have less metal on them XD.

Chilling at Dom na Pesku hut after some super Mushroomsoup XD

Wolfs Cliff

2013-03-21T09:44:00.000+01:00

The shadowfall of the cliff looks like a wolf therfeore I name it Wolfs Cliff

Well it was Friday again. A few days had passed since I had returned from Gerloss, Hintertux and the FWT in Fieberbrunn, and since there had been a dump in the alps me and Gašper were heading back to Innsbrooklyn. We still did not know where we would land on the next day and so, after another little detour to Fieberbrunn we crashed a party, made a plan, got hammered woke up early and went off to Zillertals Hintertux with Aljoša.

My favourite. Awsome style.

While there the week earlier, I checked out new lines and was eager to try some with a fresh load of snow. We knew we had to stay above 2200m so it seemed like a good plan. What we had forgotten was that it was Saturday, and all of Germany would be dropping into the valley and traffic jams are not my thing... so we had to improvise.

That´s what brought me to this jewel of the alps. After riding and not being all to satisfied I decided to take a little hike to check out another side valley of the Zillertal. The ava situation was stable and the weather was bluebird deluxe. Aljo and Gašper had already given up for the day and when I crossed the ridge line to the other side I saw it. A nice powdery flank.. fresh and at the bottom.. a film crew ? A second later I knew why they were there. There was a cliff. A big one .. a nice one.. one that was PERFECT for filming. So since I had dragged my giant Macro lens with me I started taking pictures. They were good.. and even better was the shadow of the cliff. It looked like a wolfs head. Since you guys know I like wolfs a lot I named it WOLFS CLIFF. Composition perfect. Pictures grande.

At the top of the flank XD on your right.. avalanche mayhem
and on your left powder heaven XD

I called Aljosa and told him to drag his lazy ass up there! Reluctant he came to join but in the end it was all worth it ! Check it out in the pics bellow :P I am so gonna go drop that thing again and the terrain in the back is amazing too and all untracked XD muahahahaha XD

Aljoša riding in style !

On a side note the last week must have been nasty before Saturday. The avalanches we saw were supergnarly aka NOT SURVIVABLE so please be careful since the next dump is already on it´s way or rather was yesterday as Aljoša can attest!

FPS view XD Droping :P Gnarly and superfun !

Well that will be it till next week! I+ll be at the ROGLA FREESTYLE WEEK for the next couple of days transitioning back to park and having fun with my friends. If ur there and up for a little chat look me up ! Cheers !

FREERIDE WORLD TOUR Fieberbrunn-Pillerseetal

2013-03-18T10:18:00.006+01:00

The upper gate is waiting for some action.

Well after leaving for Gerlos Wednesday 2 weeks past, and drooping in what can only be described a short spring/summer stint riding all sorts of slush in fog and bluebird as well as evacuating to Hintertux to get a cool off at -3 (yes it was -3 at 3200...since it was 18 degrees in the Valley) it was time for Fieberbrunn again. FYA I also managed to FINALLY get may STANSTON park-skies a binding... the one I wanted.. but cheaper :)

Left: My beloved Orpler wall +Hintertuxer Gletscher , Right: Whats left of the tux Halfpipe

I was staying with my old man and "evil twin" in Gerlos. My original plan was to go to Fieberbrunn and photograph an report on the next stop of the FREERIDE WORLD TOUR. With the gnarliest warmfrant hitting the northern alps the competition was postponed that friday till the past weeken. I already settled that it would not be worth it and I should use my remaining day to hit the HOTZONE park at Gerlos. I also hadn`t received any additional info for my accreditation since as usual I was so busy that I remembered to send it of on like Wednesday while on the autobahn on my way to Gerlos at a Gastop...

So I woke up on a Sunday morning, packed up, and hit the Park. It started snowing a little and fog came up. Killing time I did tons of runs on the BMW XDrive Gaintslalom course thinking "What the hell at least I can win a car :P. So at noon it was so fogged up that the camera system stopped working and I decided to head back home. I considered crashing Innsbrucklyn but kinda wasn't in the mood for some odd reason... oh well.. of to Ljubljana I thought.

But then while driving I passed Mittersil where one turn makes you go into the Fieberbrunn direction and I took it XD.

Upon arrival a ton of stuff was already going on :P The EXPO and viewing areas were bustling with crowds and a powderski test was under way. Business was apparently running nicely :P I quickly grabbed my Photo stuff took my trusted powder skies and went up the mountain.

THE FACE

It was clear that the contest-face would be the Wildseeloder NE face. When I got up at first everything was clouded up and it was raining. Total crap.

The starting gates. Now there are two :P

I went back down to check out some EXPO stuff but then seeing, that the clouds were starting to break up I returned to get a few nice shots of the entire contest face.


People still partying at the top well after everyting is postoponed

The face is awesome and next time the conditions are ok I am still planing to hit that. Unfortunately last time we were here the conditions were also not optimal and we had to stick to the Cablecar runs. But hey the winter is not over yet.

I also spotted some of the organizers doing checkups on the face where a nasty wet triebschnee avalanche had gone down. So saftywise the thing was a total no go for saturday!

This feature of the face is gonna be very
interesting to watch.

I made a little POSTER of the face from the upper Start gate all the way to the finish you can get here :) !!

EXPO

The Stage and the EXPO

So when I headed back down to the bottom the EXPO and the side program were in full swing. Niederlenders were already drunk as hell watching the bikini girls dance in a snow globe and some of the contestants where having a beer. Ski-tests were busy and people were buying merchandise.

And that's what I liked about the EXPO idea. Think of it as a mobile trade fare that targets your demographic. For an incentive *sponsoring or buying space* you as a business get into direct contact with the customer, get valuable feedback and prestige associated with such a high profile event.

It`s a good wake-up call for all the old school marketing methods seen at the FIS races where you basically invest a SHITLOAD of money just to put you logo on a banner. Here it adds the additional social interaction aspect that freeride goods manufacturers need to bring there massage across.

Busy was the skitest XD

Sure we like Brands but functionality trumps brand loyalty and functionality has to be brought to the customer. You have to show your potential buyers that your gear is up to the task and can withstand the rigors of the mountain extreme.

The Hitradio OE3 Pistenbully laying down the beats :P

This is a aspect very different from traditional alpine races, coz Hans Autonormal is not going to go buy the most expensive Atomic Raceski coz Marcell Hirscher rides them. He is gonna go buy the cheapest piece of salescrap at the local Hervis and instead treat himself to an excessive amount of beer at the race venue... and that is something the organizers understand well. Ok we to treat ourselfs to the beer, at least the once that drink it :P

So we had The North Face, SCOTT, GoPro, Majesty, Dakine, ABS and ARVA as well as a few others showing there stuff to onlookers. It was kinda like a small ISPO for the end-consumer.

Juniors

There was one more event next to the main thing that was on hold. The juniors competition. After all the FREERIDE WORLD TOUR also needs to make sure the next generation is up to the task and therefore next to the main tour there is a 3 stop juniors tour. Also the kids can take the points they make to the tour when they turn 18 and get to spend the days with the pros, learning about riding, safty, line choice etc. Unforitonaly thnx to the overcast this competition was also suspended.

Well so much for a little intro on all the things going on around the competition!

The competition since whent down on Saturday and a 20year old Silas Chickering-Ayers von :P Check it out.

PS: On a side note I also finally managed to solve my Goggle problem, so one could say that this trip from Gerlos - Zillertal - Tux and then Fieberbrunn was a lot about upgrading my age old gear :P

These should work fine XD

ISPO 2013: FERRINO

2013-03-13T11:10:00.002+01:00

Ferrino. Making gear since 1870 !

Until the press-tour I was vagualy familiar with FERRINO. I knew that they developed waterprofing for tentfabrics and made a name for itself with its expeditionary tents. Like La Sportiva, Ferrino has a very rich history and is still a family own bussines (yes dear slovenan businesses.. instead of getting a new manager who srewes over 100 years of company heritage and know-how.. the italians keep it running in the family.. and that`s why these companies are still here and top notch). Ferrino was founded in 1870 in Turin and has been working hard on alpine gear ever since.

The highlab softshells.

Of course the company has come a long long way since than and expanded its expertiese by creating a "Laboratory", the Hut Quintino Sella on Monte Rosa. Even today the development goes on at 3585 m above sea level and as we were told, every customer of Ferinno is welcome to stay in the test tents on the Monte Rossa for free :). Of course the company doesn't only make tents. Backpacks, Cloathing, Snow Shoes, Sleepingbags for high alpine and safty equipment.

The most interesting of the softgoods was the Highlab line of alpine products. Specialy the new LYSKAMM softshell looked proper and was a nice fit when I tried it on. A lightweight durable and breathable shell with glued zippers. As the outdoor segment has grown in dubble digits compared to the rest of the snowindustry the Market has been flooded with a lot of different shells from different companies. Ferrino seems to have taken a more cautiouse approach to this trend and presented the new softshell.

AIR SAFE

The Airsafe

They also have a cool Boss :)

Antoher thing that the company has expetional expertiese in is saftey equipment. As it works closely with the SNATE (Italian School of Alpine Rescue Technicians) and Mountain Medicine Clinic of Aosta Hospital,it has also developed a own avalance breatihing system the Air Safe. We all know the avalung. This one thou has a different system that does eleimitante the hissing sound and so makes it easir not to panic while breathing. It also has a uniqe antichoke tube system. It`s also very light. These kind of breathing aids are the thing that mostly helps prolong your survival when you are under an avalanche.

The Avalanche airbags.

What keeps you from sinking under an avalanche is of course an Avalanche airbag. This season is definetly the boom season for the avalanche airbag producers. Snowpulse and ABS-Systems are selling like hotcackes as most people realise that 700 bucks is not that big a pricetag on once own life. The two backpacks with this are the

Powdersafe 18

Could be considered as Ferinnos go to Airbag backpack. It uses Snowpulse tehnology so it is a singe airbag system with the benefit of covering your neck area. The Powdersafe is the big bag that offers a enough space for all your gear and a bit more.

Cybersafe 13

The cybersafe is the second and smaller of the two. It has 13l of space so it´s a light weight solution for your daily powder dose. From the basic design the two are very similar except for the size.

Last year a lot of tests were conducted with the airbag systems survivability. The most imortant aspect of a airbag is that it lets you stay on top of the avalanche. The tests conducted in swiss showed that the median depth of burial with an airbag was around 20cm, while without it was 60cm. Now ad the snowmass at depth 60 and you are more likley to die from a broken back then from suffacation.

Ferrino really used to be a tent company and still is but I really like it how they developed a complete portfolio of products, and even if they see an option to offer a supperior solution, they don`t seem to stubornly try to reinvent the wheel but have an open mind about other inovations and there integration like they did with Snowpulse. On the other hand If they know they can innovate they don`t falter but just do it.

Mazzalema trophy

One thing that Ferrino is very proud off is the Mazzalema trophy. An anual high altitude ski mountaineering event at Cervina. It is one of the big tree events, think of it as a kind of TTR 6star event for mountaneering. It takes place on the Monte Rossa masif and has been taking place since 1933 *talk about herratage :P*

Also it is a testbed for advanced tehchnologies like this

Up to the top of Monte Rossa in record time.

This is only 190 g !

Mazzalama 20 backpack. Made from high tech fiber it looks like a shoping bag but has the strength of a normnal backpack. it has a 20 l capacity and weights .. weit for it .. 190g. You really have to hold it in your hand to grasp that :P oh and guess what, the next trophy is this year at the end of april. Who knows I might even be there. And since at the last trophy the slovenian Nejc Kuhar was 4th we might have a shot at the podium :P

Wow seems like the more I write about ISPO the longer the articles get :P so for the end something for Nejc and my other snowboarding powbuddies. Ferrino also makes snowshoes under the Baldas Brand that it aquired in 2008. So check them out !

Next up we move to my standard fetisch.. as some of you know... Salomon .. but before that I was at the WORLD FREERIDE TOUR in Fieberbrunn. Sure the contest is postponed till saturday but that did not stop me to check it out XD

ISPO 2013: LA SPORTIVA

2013-03-10T21:41:00.003+01:00

4th generation and still kicking :)

In our press tour we also visited La Sportiva. Last year I had a look at scarpa so I was keen on seeing what they had in store for us. The company itself was founded in 1928 in Tesero, Val die Fiemme and has been producing boots of all sorts since then. Again like in the case of the companies from the last post this one is also a family business handing the torch from one generation to the next :)

Checking the new goods :P

Specially interesting for me were two skiboots. Lets start off with the:

Stratos 3 CUBE

Technically this one is a marvel. Ultratech as I like to call it. This is their third generation carbon ski mountaineering boot. Built to be ultra light and durable it features:

Weight: 470g + 80g Liner = 550g per Boot
Shell and Cuff material: 100% Carbon Kevlar
5 positions from 5° to 19° of forward lean
76° (+53°, -23°) range of motion

This most probably makes the La Sportiva Stratos³ Cube the lightest ski mountaineering boot in the world and they can be very proud of that. But as interesting as this "spaceboots" might be I was more interested in the

Soectre and the Sprakle

In a already crowded market that has seen many a companies explosive expansion into the ski mountaineering and touring sector the core brands with the rich history continue doing multiple things. Working on durability, weight and the range of motion. In short they are the innovators, and that is where these two boots shine. Specially designed for Male and Female they offer 60° range of motion and a great 120 flex. The design is great and they seem well made for introducing the new found market of discoverers from the "ride and hike" tribes to the real deal.

The family at LaSportiva known that these people will soon know that weight is important, and to be honest I would love to give these puppies a spin myself :P. I also like the fact that they stick to the 4 buckles . If you wanna shed some weight you can easily remove one.

ISPO 2013: CAMP, CASSIN, CT TECHNOLOGY and AKU

2013-03-05T09:24:00.000+01:00

Camp ice picks and crampons.

Well a month has passed since I attended the ISPO. Like every year it was packed and there were so many new things to see, that sometimes I ask myself where all the ideas come from. ISPO is fun. You run around all day meeting all the poeple you haven`t seen for ages and running from one meeting to another. Originally I had planed to be there for two days, but since we are powderhunters and we had one of the best dumps of the year in FISS the day before we decided to milk it while we could. So late on a Sunday exhausted and hungry, on our way back to Innsbruck, Aljosa, Gasper, Clarissa and I quickly made a plan. We would head to Munich together, crash at my buddies Andis place and go out to the Pleasuremag P1 party and ISPO on Monday. We didn`t eat all day except a quick stint at a McDs and where on our way. Suffice to say that the party was awsome and we lost Aljosa somewhere along the way. But without drifting to much into the party mayham of ISPO lets say... you have to do that some time :P it`s a complete blast every year XD

But then morning came and it was time for the big fair. I was running late *damed Munich traffic* to my first meeting already.

This year ISPO attracted more then 80.000 visitors.

A few weeks earlier I was contacted by Andreas from the Italian Outdoor Group, a umbrella organisation that promotes and unites Italian outdoor producers. He invited me to a press tour. Since last year I took a more detailed look at brands like Dynafit, Scarpa, Black Diamond and the North Face, I decided to join and see what these companies form bella Italia had to offer and I was sure in for a surprise. Some of the brands are present in Slovenia, but not to the same extent as there rivals. So running late Andreas was kind enough to wait and then we started our tour.Check out a little clip from our tour by the Italian outdoor group.

CAMP and CASSIN

A Brand we all know and chances are good you already own some of there gear. There logo is as iconic as the brand itself. Now joined by Urs Odermatt for extending it`s already extensive ice climbing tools the things that struck me as most interesting from there product presentations were:

Website: http://www.camp.it/

Blade Runner Crampons

Constructed form special nanoflex steel, light and most important they have a heel-slide that integrates the linking bar with the heel piece. Result better rigidity without dexterity loss. So it`s kind of a crossover crampon that takes the best from vertical and horizontal frame designs. Also they are light at around 1 kg.

CAMP ROCKET SAFTY SHOWEL

The new shovel from Camp is not only light but also features a interesting frame design that packs up neatly and a bit of a oversize blade made from T6 aluminium. It also has an interesting second mode. on the upper side it has small "teeth" that allow to cut really hard snow. To use that you also fasten the shaft differently to cover more area on the shovel and allow a better transition of power directly on the snow surface. It weights 660g and also has a state of the art telescope shaft.

CAMP G COMP WINDPOWER GLOVES

Most of us are used to Level 1, Zeiner and even less technical brands like Granade ect. for snow gloves But I did find this glove, mostly intended for ski mountaineering competitions, rather intriguing. Leather for the fingers and special reinforcements that should give you more finger movement on those nasty ridges where the wind blows cold and you need all the grip and dexterity of your fingers just to hold on. Also has a full wind cover that makes it look more like a traditional snowboarding glove for the cases where the wind gets to nasty. As I said interesting item indeed.

Another thing that caught my eye was the new extended range of outdoor jackets and shells. Here the ED ATOM JACKET was the main attraction made form proprietary fabric. It seems that Camp is also following the Apparel trend of diversification that was very apparent at ISPO this year.

AKU

An outdoor trekking and footwear producer AKU has been making shoes for mountains for more then 30 years. Since I like to walk in technical boots *yes ride and hike will never replace a real shoe* I was curios to find out that a lot of outdoor filmers use these for there daily work out in the field :)

Website: http://www.aku.it/us/

As any of my film friend will know, it`s not exactly cool to stand in your skiboots all day behind a camera in the snow. So I looked trough there product range and found the SL PRO II GTX. A boot that has all the super technical features and is only half the weight of my current technopro boot :P

Another thing the company likes to cater to is the premium market. The idea is that you buy a good shoe that will last. In these department they took a lot of cues form old alpine equipment, a trend I also saw at Dynastar, but more on that in a later post.

Looks like its from the 1920 but its tech is from today :P

CT - CLIMBING TECHNOLOGY

CT also introduced a new crampon

Website: http://www.climbingtechnology.it/en-US/home-en.html

The brand is well known in Slovenia for its technical climbing equipment but there newest innovation is the LYCAN Crampon. I already like the name... werewolf :P They seem to have taken inspiration form mother nature and formed the hooks like animal-claws. These allow for a lot better Ice penetration. The design also prevents nasty snow buildup beneath the crampon. It also has a very simple setup mechanism thats easy to use. They will come in an automatic and semiautomatic version and weight 1060g.

The lycan presented.

Also there were improvements to
the popular harneses.

I`ll be going into more details for some of the companies in the upcoming posts. Well continue with LaSportiva and then Ferrino, before going on to Salomon, Elan and the rest of our usual suspects etc.

The woods are deep full of powder and avalanches

2013-03-01T08:47:00.000+01:00

It was very deep and fluffy XD
Photo by Jernej Smole

Since I spend most of Saturday sleeping off and cleaning my cave(yes I do that every other month or so :P), and Žiga posted a nice bluebird powder pic from Vogel, Sunday ment action.

My original plan was to ring up a few powder buddies and go to Vogel. It was still dumping like there was no tommorow and the temperature was still stable so in the the late evening, we decited to instead head for the woods of Travisio aka Višarje on the Slovenia-Italy border since the weather prediction was a cloudy snowstorm. Miha was already there so we just joined up. Also Smole, who was with us at the jibbrothers invitational came all the way from Maribor to ride with us.

But before going anywhere at 6 am I had to free my car from a ton of snow. That, and the fact that my road in the middle of Ljubljana was NOT CLEARD or anything like that (Thnx JPL for your snowcompetence...) and that the celaning dozer managed to block the whole road with a ton of snow from the mainroad didn`t help much. Hell I had to put on the snowchains just to make it like 100m to the main road. Took me about an hour !!!

The point of orientation.. the fun was left or right XD
Photo by Jernej Smole

So after a long ride on a badly cleaned roads we arrived at Traviso. And boy were we in for a nice surprise. There was just so much snow. We kept riding and riding and it was dumping and dumping. Check it out XD:

It was still dumping even
as we were departing XD
Photo by Jernej Smole

The woods there are so superdense at the middle that it requires a ton of good skill to move without hugging trees. Also one thing that was abundand was sluff. Oh yes my belowed sluff. The 50 cm on top of the old curst were more or less stable but still as the day progressed and the the temperature rose at an unbelivable pace the snow started to become more heavy and one could see the old crust underneth was starting to show trough. Traviso is an interesting place to ride. Quite harsh and inhospitable dense woods with a not all to nice deforestation in the middle. My tip is to got here only when there is a ton of snow.. otherwise it might get a little nasty.

Not a lot of space !
Photo by Jernej Smole

Also another aspect that one needs to consider is Italys idiotic policy towards freeride. Namely it is forbidden. Exception are a few so called freeride zones. Most resorts don`t have them. On my recent work related mission to Austria a representative of the snowmachine maker Demaclenko, who is also with the italian alpine rescue told me that the problem is the burocracy. Unlike in Austria where you can go everywhere and are resposible for your own actions in Italy the responsibility is with the resort operator. Since the resort can then be sued for massive damadges the operators make sure that the access to powder is as hard as possible. Also the snow partolers are police officers that will fine you with around 400 EUR if they catch you. We were lucky that day but on the other side of the mountain a few of others were not ...

At the other side of the resort one of our friends was involuntarily taken in by the police because he wanted to help a dude that trigged an avalanche and got buried. That person apparently didn`t even have any safety gear... Also there was some murky reporting on the subject by the oh so objective Slovenian and Italian media whose factchecking skills stop at the size of the local gondola. Suffice to say if 400 people would fit into a cabin of a 8 person Einseilumlaufbahn I bet Dopplmayr or Leitner would pay a shitload of cash for that Patent... So yeah, that happens when foxnews Slovenia employs students for 5 bucks an hour instead of journalists... sensationalism bullshit at its best. Luckly no one was injured in the incident.

At the bottom
Višarje/Travisio
Photo by Jernej Smole

JIB Brothers Invitational or the journey is the destination

2013-02-23T19:08:00.001+01:00

Proper Maribor hood action on the car XD

What should have been, a simple little night session, turned into quite an adventure. Let's start at the beginning. Sometime last week one of our friends from the Jib Brothers crew contacted me, if I would come to their invitational session somewhere near Litija. Not exactly a place, on our free skiing radars. I was a little intrigued. Since at the same time I should have been on my way to Innsbruck. But as it so happens, another nice little Northstau turned south and with the help of the Poo Valley, it started snowing here in the South. Of course it would have been being an idiot to head north while the dump was coming to the South. With that in mind, my Park skis still destroyed, no bindings for the new ones at hand, I set out just to take pictures.

I love the inrun!

Steezin it !

It was late Friday afternoon, and Jernej picked me up with the car. It was a little odd not having any skis with me. We picked up the rest of the crew, and then the adventure was about to begin, with a really odd twist.

200 m from the gas station we ran out of diesel. Yes, we managed to run out of gas in the middle of Ljubljana. So the first thing to do, was to get gas. But in order to manage that, of course, one would need something to put gas in. Fortunately for us Blazes grandparents did left far off at the gas station was close. We got the gas, fielded up, and tried to start the car. And guess what, it didn't start.

Gas trubble with a smile XD

Fortunately Jernejs cousin, or something like that, is the mechanic, and you told us that we would need a 17 size key. With that we could dislodge the fuel pumps injectors so that the fuel could restart flowing, or something like that. Luckily again, Blazes grandfahter had one. After training, the car's battery, and getting more help and assistance from the Povse family, it was 9:30 and we were finally ready to go. Of course, since a dump was expected, it started snowing increasingly more.

The Venue:

With the help, Google, and a very vague but accurate description on facebook. We finally managed to get to the session. And boy was it dumping. The guys from Maribor, and the jib Bros were shredding it well, and so I went on to do what they came for. Get a few good shots. So without further ado, here are some:

At this point I would like to thank Sparavc and Agron, for a really cool event, and I'm already looking forward to this one next year. As you can see from the pictures, the backyard Park was awesomely shaped, and included a lot of really interesting and cool obstacles. Even the kicker looked cool and had a really nice and steep landing. All in all awesome. And at the end we even got a ton of cool goodies.

Hell we even had branded polos XXL of course !!!

We were shredding hard, and the like 2 AM or even later, hell I can`t remember, it was time to head back to Ljubljana. Of course, since we had left the car 20 cm of snow had fallen on the road ahead was not cleared. So in the end, even the car got a shitload of faceshots and it took us a mere 2 1/2 hours to pass around 60 km, and that the reason why my next car is going to have all wheel drive. Preferably it is going to be a Subaru. And prefrebly it will have been tested on topgear XD

Well it was really dumping like there was no tommorow XD

The survivors.. before we headed out back into the woods XD

Broadcasting again

2013-02-22T17:50:00.004+01:00

A ton of stuff happend :)

Well the month passed in a fly and I have been so busy running around across the alps that I haven't found any time for the blog. Well I'm back in Slovenia now and the next week is gonna be more chill so I will finally have time to catch up with the blog.

It has been a super busy month. I was at Air&Style, ISPO and have tons of stuff to tell from there.. we hunted Tyrolian pow in heaps found some secrets in Styria, went Heliskiing in Slovenia, went to Schladming for the WorldCup VIP-ing until we dropped etc.

So for all of you who thought I was taking a break guess what I wasn´t ! There was just so much stuff to do that I just didn`t find the time to write in quality articles. Thought that I might use twitter but then again internet connections on the phone are not that cheap :P I'm supposed to have two easy weekends and not a all to stressful upcoming week so I`ll have time to satisfy all your powdery tastes ! And when u see the videos I hope your gonna want more :P

Well start off with ISPO Brand coverage ! This year I started by looking what our Italian friends have to offer :P Stay tuned !!!

ISPO 2013

2013-01-30T19:23:00.000+01:00

Jup it`s already that time of the year. The time we get to check out the latest and greatest stuff from our dear ski and snowboard suppliers. It`s ISPO time next week. So next to all the partying and all the insanity surrounding the worlds biggest snow trade-show I will be making my rounds around the showfloor and checking out some interesting stuff like last year so to get yourselves warmed up check out last years reports if you haven`t yet coz I wrote a lot about it last year :P

Intro - http://awayfromthepack.blogspot.com/2012/02/ispo-2012-there-and-back-again-trends.html

Pieps - http://awayfromthepack.blogspot.com/2012/02/ispo-2012-pieps-pieps-pieps.html

Skis 1- http://awayfromthepack.blogspot.com/2012/02/ispo-2012-skis-part-i-salomon-dynafit.html

Skis 2 - http://awayfromthepack.blogspot.com/2012/02/ispo-2012-skis-part-ii-black-dimond.html

Bindings - http://awayfromthepack.blogspot.com/2012/03/ispo-2012-skibinding-technology.html

Gimmicks - http://awayfromthepack.blogspot.com/2012/03/ispo-2012-goggle-gimmicks-recon-mod.html

So there are lots of things happening in february. So stay tuned for gear, air&style and some heliskiing action from Slovenia XD

SchlICK powderlines

2013-01-28T10:55:00.004+01:00

Flying salomon :P Its climing time !

Since Nassfeld last week it`s time to return to new years Innsbruck advantures. After spending most of the evening and prior day at the hospital after Steffis accident at Stubai, we couldn't stay idle on the next day. Before going into surgery Steffi said one more thing: "go riding for me tomorrow!". Of course, that had to be done.

Just leave to the left of the upper cable car station to enter the woods.

The forecast was not exactly great so we decided to check out one of the closer resort, that usually has a lot of nice treelines, hidden from the masses. We were going to Schlick, this little "skigebiet" at the beginning of the Stubai Valley goes up to around 2100 m. Temperatures were high again. So we were just hoping for the best. I had been here before as a kid, when we were spending our annual winter holiday in Tirol. But that had been more than 10 years ago. Upon arriving, I noticed that the resort hadn't changed a lot. Sure there were a few new chairlifts, replacing old ones, but the planned connection towards Lizum, yet remained an elusive master plan,one still unaccomplished.

Ziga dangling form the rocks while trying to remove one of his skis.

David knew the area well, so we followed his lead. Once you are at the top of the gondola, you can enter closed off terrain to your right. This presents quite a big area of up to seven couloirs, ranging from wide to very narrow, winding down to the woods and ultimately to the ski trek that leads back to the gondolas middle station.

Aljos board hurtling towards my head on. Luckly I stoped it.

The problem here is that it`s very narrow, and in bad avalanche conditions, if something gets triggered your only way out, is "pedal to the metal" and through the chutes. Our plan was to traverse as far to the north east as we possibly can to reach a very wide open space, that should still have been untracked.

Its steeper that youd think. One of the nice coluars
needed to pass.

It was quite a bit of a gamble, because we were very early in the season, and rightly so. The amount of snow was not sufficient everywhere. That meant that we could`t drop certain parts, that usually don`t present much of a technical challenge. I almost tripped while traversing once but luckily I didn't. Sometimes even the second when you're not paying attention, can end in disaster. As much as the day was extreme, it was also good to know, that our group had the skills, to pull this off safely.

SSX Nassfeld

2013-01-24T09:46:00.002+01:00

A windy ascend :) Photo by Ziga Papler

Within the week, the weather forecasts were constantly changing, and the weekend was approaching. Amidst all the work, even on Friday, we weren't completely sure where we would be going. Nejc had flown in from Brussels for a nice powder weekend. Determined, not to have it ruined, by sickness or bad weather. On Saturday morning Ziga, Vasja, Miha, Nejc and myself were off to Nassfeld. After checking all the forecasts, and even stopping in Kranjska Gora early in the morning, we figured, wed stick with our decision. We were also lucky to get a good price on the daily ticket :P.

When we arrived, the sun was shining, all looked nice, but after the first run, we were all very disappointed. Most of the easily accessible terrain had been ridden the day before, regardless of high avalanche danger. So we had to improvise. The reason I named this post in honor of the all renowned, and mostly familiar,SSX game franchise from electronic arts, is just because, after the day and editing the videos, it felt like we had played one of those games in real life. That's why the edit is also kind of inspired by that. Check it out :-) And yes, I also added the stoke meter just for fun. :-).All shot and cut together from a GoPro3 BLACK now integrated into my post workflow perfectly :P Oh and I also have a new intro thnx to the high winds XD HD version is now online too ;).

Without going into too much detail, in short, we had to Wander off away from the pack for almost 45 min and climb the summit of the Kammleiten over the Kühwegger Törl to find the good terrain. I did get the hint, on this location, when I was checking the web page of the ski resort, and found a freeride section, with not much more than a promotional video. After paying close attention to the scenics of the shots used we had a rough estimate of where to look.

Of course we didn't take into account, that we would have to stand in winds of up to 60-80 km/h, but hey, that just added to the excitement. Since the ascent was so long, and the weather was rapidly shifting to a southern föhn with heavy overcast and the winds were starting to exced the 80 mark, we were only able to do two runs, but it did pay off because in all the tracked resort apparently, we were the ones who found this untracked powder. I hardly believe, that this good terrain is not riden all too often, if the snow conditions allow it. I guess we were fortunate, because the avalanche danger level, the day before, was level IV and, with the long hike, that probably saved it for us to enjoy.

Nejc at the Summit of Kammleiten

Being happy and satisfied, with our run, we headed back home, with another stopover in Kranjska Gora, where we bumped into our friend and ski cross champion Filip Flisar, who was doing a nice little promotion for his sponsor BMW and its XDRIVE enabled vehicles. It was really nice to randomly bump into each other, not first and probably not the last time. Also I hear the driving was a lot of fun.

I also had to much time fun and adopted an SSX Wallpaper :P

There is only one way ! UP ! Photo by Ziga Papler

Kühtai Dam

2013-01-20T16:00:00.000+01:00

The Kühtai dam. What do the Austrians not build in the Apls.

I almost forgot about this little line, from the last day of the old year. It was nice and sunny, lines could still be found, and with our Dutch friends we were off again in the morning to Kuhtai. I already wrote about this resort, from my last visit, but their were vast amounts of terrain, still to be checked. Originally I hadn't planned to ride powder that they, but somehow took all of my equipment except for my powder skis along. That meant, I would be riding my old Salomon Foil for the day. Kind of nostalgic.

Places left to go remain in heaps :)

When we arrived there, I set out with Wolfgang, one of Gabi's friends, to ride the dam above Kuhtai. I had been to the resort a couple of times now, but I really never considered, doing that. Because of the Dams angle, on the other days of my visit, it just seemed a little too risky. Since it was sunny day number three, and the avalanche danger levels as well as the report were going down to level II, it was worth a try. And we weren't the first :P. Unfortunately, we were only able to do two runs before one of Wolfis old injuries started to act up. These things always seem to creep on you when ur having fun :S

Above the dam the sun was shinig :)

Wolfi getting ready for our descent.

But that wasn't all for the day. Last year the resort hosted the youth Winter Olympics freestyle competitions. Therefore they had a nicely shaped superpipe. Some of you know, that I really love snow pipes, but honestly, said my skills riding them are crappy. So this presented a perfect opportunity, to improve them. In so I did. It was really fun running up and down the pipe for a few runs. I learned that I really need to work on my fitness to get enough strength into my feet to stomp more air.

The airbag and the Superpipe. So much fun :)

But that wasn't all, because next to the pipe an airbag was set up, so finally I was able to try my cork five. My first run supposedly, according to my friends, didn't look all that bad, what they didn't see was the nice landing on my head after bouncing somewhat to side :P But it was all good fun. Unfortunately, our airbag action was cut short in the literal sense, when a snowboarder managed to break the bag with his board, yes I guess it can happen even with out shredding it with a Pistenbully...

Avalanche safty training

2013-01-18T08:37:00.000+01:00

Our snowman has 3 beacons and is making a headstand XD

After Steffis injury, and the unstable situation in the mountains,with all the variables and unpredictabilities, we decided that it would be prudent to hone our avalanche safety skills. It was raining in Innsbruck and so Aljosa, Ziga and I drove up to Lizum, to bury our beacons and see how quickly we could find them. Unlike the valley it was dumping up here.

Of course it wasn't all serious all the time, so after we finished our little exercise, with some childish glee we construced a LVS snowman :P

Riders of the snowpocalypse. We set up traning camp next
to a tyrolian church

As for the exercise, thankfully, our search times were quite acceptable. Ziga made it a little harder for us to find his beacon, and also practically showed how skewed research can become, when the terrain got steeper with rocks, trees and other obstacles.

Soking wet and its still dumping. I like my new
Pieps showel

It was also good to comparatively see how the different beacons we were using work. We had a Pieps DSP Tour, a Orthovox F1 and a Arva. All of them seem to work reasonably well. Since my Orthovox was the only analog beacon in the mix it was interesting to compare its working to the others. Sure it might seem at first inferior to the new ones, that show range, and the first seems that you're slower, but unlike the Pieps and certainly didn't get fooled by the rocks to lead you into the opposite direction where one should be going. I still perfer the audio sonar like workings of an old beacon. It also seems easier for me to home in on more beacons since there interwalls do not match. An open question that remains is how much the intervals of the same types of becons overlap. In a bad situation, if they did that would be a big problem.

Almost there. Aljo joins me after going into the opposite
direction for a while.

Once you come into close proximity search mode, all of the beacons seemed to work the same. What that means is that in training you should get a good feel for how to interpret the signals. In our example Ziga hid his beacon in close proximity to a old tree base, that probably cost us about a minute to look through and find the beacon below it.

Looking for the hidden becon... Time is ticking