Category: February 2013

On tour with Michi, Steph, Basti & photographer Paul Masukowitz…

Another beautiful day… On tour with Michi…

Another cool weekend with lots of young, talented riders in Hochfügen… 🙂

[/caption]

The Rosskogel was on my to-do list for quite a while now… But not the standard “Kogelrinne” that is visible from the Inntal valley. No, it’s the northwestern colouir down to the Inzinger Alm. Not many people have skied it, it’s 45 degrees steep at the entrance and gets to a steepness of constant 40 degrees… Last year it didn’t happen, so yesterday we had the perfect, stable conditions to climb and ski the northwest colouir of the Rosskogel.

There are quite a few possibilities to climb and ski the peak. One possibility is to skin all the way up along the east side or the more adventurous line is to climb the northern ridge. Therefore it is recommended to be an experienced mountain person otherwise you shouldn’t go that way! There are some really challenging bits where climbing/mountain skills are a must! We had our crampons in the backpack, were able to climb everything without them…

On tour with one of my best ski&bike buddy Andi 🙂

Oberperfuss… Such a nice, little ski area very close to Innsbruck… I hope that it will survive for many, many more years! In the morning we were warmly welcomed by some local ski pensionists who were quite wondering what we were doing with our freeride skis…

To get to the top of the Rangger Köpfl you have easy lift access that brings you all the way on top of 1939 m… From there we had to put on our skins. It didn’t take very long, three local touring people overtook us and took on setting the tracks. Thanks for that 🙂 Also at the same time two icelandic snowboarders started the hike up… We were quite surprised that they were taking the same way up. Unbelievably the climbed the whole northern ridge with their snowshoes! Crazy guys 😉
It was really cold on that day…
After about two hours climbing the ridge we finally arrived the peak of Rosskogel at 2646 m. What a beautiful view up there!

But we couldn’t stay up there very long, wind, freezing hands and ice-cold feet wanted to get into the warmth again 🙂
The two Icelandic snowboarders didn’t climb all the way up to the summit. The rode the lookers right line into the main colouir, the Kogelrinne.
Found their video online on youtube:

The entrance of the colouir was quite sketchy, not much snow, only way to get down there was side slipping… But then the conditions turned out to be awesome, with no other tracks, just ours in the colouir!
We could ski all the way down to Inzing! 2000 altitude meters downhill!

What a cool day!

Thanks Andi and especially THANKS to Petra and Leoni for the taxi ride 🙂 You made our day! Thanks a lot!!!!!

Here some impressions of the day:

And here the video edit:

Arlberg, the cradle of skiing, yes how true.

 

Thxxxx Carmen for another beautiful day out in the mountains 🙂

//

ISPO = cool to be there, great to see all the new things coming out, soooo many familiar faces, crazy, loud, good vibes…

This year I didn’t make it to all of my sponsors, sorry Riccardo @ Shred and Kiwi @ Riggler…. Due to the snow chaos we arrived @ Ispo around noon, were limited with time but at least had a glimpse at the Fischer booth – keep your eyes aware on the new Big Stix 🙂 I’m already riding them, sooooooo cool skis, love them!!!! Thanks to Fischer for your great support!!!!

Two days in the backcountry with 16 young, motivated Freeride kids – what a pleasure!

http://www.freeridecamps.at

Together with mountainguide Davv Pitschmann we held this years fourth Junior Freeride Camp, this time in the Axamer Lizum, close to Innsbruck. He is an absolute pro when it comes to snow and avalanche safety and it’s great to work with such a guy on the mountain…

Due to the weather conditions and the avalanche danger, the first days’ focus was more or less on interpreting the avalanche bulletin, beacon search, etc… with the kids. Always great to see how easy the kids learn and how motivated they are!

Mrs Holle brought some snow over night, so on the second day we could ski some powder with the kids! Fun in the snow, wohoooo!

Thanks to Ortovox and ABS Airbag for supporting the young shredders with safety gear!

 

Skitouring, guiding a group, avalanche safety, building a bivy, Rutschblocktest, Schaufeltest, Orienteering, working with a compass, etc… all parts of the second week of my skitouring-instructor education… 15 men, one woman – that’s me 😉

We were based in Hintermoos/Salzburg and had probably one of the worst weeks in terms of snow condtions: rain, “Bruchharsch”, very warm temperatures but as it was an education week, no prob 🙂 You have to deal with the conditions anyway… And take it the way it is…

Highlight of the week was hiking the Schwalbenwand 2011 m on a beautiful day, skiing down 12oo altitude meters in finest “Bruchharsch” 😉 hahaaha…

All in all it was a great, informative week, with lots of input from our mountainguide Stefan 🙂 Thxxx Stefan 🙂