Wow, what a season.
During the Winter, you always look forward to more skiing and more travelling and more events. In that time, you think to yourself, its okay, because there is still lots of the season left. Then...BOOM...winters been and gone and you're sitting in an apartment in beautiful Copenhagen, waiting to fly home.
This last month or so has been mainly spent in St Anton, skiing spring slush and getting some last minute pow turns. I've also traveled to Obergurgl, Copenhagen and Riksgransen in this time.
The last competition of the 2019 season was held in Austria, at a place called Obergurgl. As the Kiwi car rolled in, it started to dump with snow. By the time the next morning had rolled
around, the blanket left on the ground was about 40cms deep. With the lifts closed and nowhere to go, we made ourselves a kicker and invited whoever walked past to join in!
Eventually we were able to make it to inspection and the competition was confirmed for the next day.
The morning dawned bright and sunny and we made our way up the mountain to get ready for a big day. The morning inspection filled many people with a sense of apprehension, not only because of the fact we were about to compete, but because the conditions left a lot to be desired. The face had been bombed and had avalanched the previous day, which left the face with very variable conditions and the chance of going for a dangerous slide if you fell.
Three riders were sent down the face to compete and it was clear after this, that the competition would not be safe to run, so it was cancelled. Everyone came back down from the face. While they were on their way down, someone triggered another slide that wiped out the boot-pack and almost took out some other athletes. Fortunately, no one was caught in it.
The afternoon and evening was spent napping and then going on to the Open Faces prize giving, where I took out 1st place for the most points in Open Faces events! Stoked!
Then it was back to St Anton to enjoy the remainder of the season.
The last couple of weeks were mostly spent skiing in the park and trying to improve my trick repertoire. I feel like i definitely came away with some wins in this regard!
We watched a famous race called The Weisse Rausche, which is basically a gnarly downhill schuss to the bottom of the ski field from the top. Its one of the hardest races to get into too I believe.
The last day in St Anton was an absolute surprise, with a fair amount of snow falling, we had some of the best runs in the later season.
Thanks for the good times St Anton!
Off to Scandinavia next...to be continued...
