…Project for the day: Skiing an unnamed colouir near the “Hoher Riffler” at the Hintertuxer glacier with Mankei… Well, the weather didn’t look that inviting when we got up the mountain… Our planned colouir to ski was in fog at the upper part but we decided to hike up there and if we have to, we would wait for a weather window…
...view from the top station of the "Gletscherbus"
...the lower part of the colouir...
About one and a half hours later we were on top of the entrance and sooo lucky that the weather meant it good with us… The sun came out and stayed like that…
...mystical place...
So lucky us, we didn’t have to wait for better weather, skied down to the entrance of the colouir… That was the only sketchy part… Between 50-55° steep, rocky and icy…
...entrance of the colouir...
Mankei sliding into the colouir...
After the first part of getting into the colouir, everything was quite easy… Although the snow conditions were hard, bumpy and icy it was a lot of fun to ski down… 🙂 My feet felt like butter 😉 and I could feel my knee but defineteley worth skiing down there ;-)…
...
...impressive rock formations...
...Mel:-)
...the average steepness was around 45°, so not that steep...
...the whole thing...
After ticking off the to-do list for the day we went skiing and were surprised how good the snow conditions still were…
Mankei skiing some wet pow 😉
...playing around...
…another beautiful day on the mountain 🙂 Thxxx to my skibuddy Mankei for the day 🙂
…two perfect days on the mountain with lots of powder, blue sky and sunshine are behind me… Today I thought – what lucky girl I am 🙂 Others sit in their offices at such a great day and I’m able to work in an “office” that couldn’t be better – THE MOUNTAINS 🙂
Kenny, one of our cameramen from our Girls Movie gave me a call on monday to let me know that he won’t be available for the next day filming with me and Pia… But he suggested that we should accompany him for this job – make some money by skiing and getting in some more footage for the film…
I didn’t have to think about it twice but Pia was a bit suspicious… She wanted to get in some more film lines of her Homeresort Hochfügen, so first it was planned that she would join in to go to Pitztal but suddenly I got a call in the evening that she won’t go… So who would join in to film with Kenny? Didn’t take 5 minutes and I already had a skibuddy for the day… Mankei…
We had to leave early in Innsbruck, took the train up to the Pitztaler Glacier at 8 a.m. and started with some “lifestyle” and “skiing on the slope” filming… It was such a beautiful day 🙂
...view from the top of the mountain...view from top of the Brunnenkogel... to the left: Wildspitze...
…to be continued 😉
…Oh man, if I don’t write down my thoughts and memories just right after, I forget soooooo many things 😉 My head is like a sieve 😉 …Information isn’t kept in my brain… Floating in and running out… 😉
So back to those awesome days on the mountain… Filmday on Tuesday… After being up on the mountain, doing some lifestyle shots and some fun skiing on the slopes, we headed off-piste… First we found a nice open field within the glacier and mountain – fresh pow inclusive… Mankei told me to ski down as fast as possible, as we weren’t sure about crevasses and if the snowpack would stay… As I haven’t been to Pitztal for ages and had a bit of a weird feeling I skied down – such a cool rush – 3 turns and that was it 😉 Some sluff came behind but nothing to worry about… Mankei skied down after me, also taking a fast line…
...our lines - not that spectacular but sooo much fun 🙂
After having had a good day on the mountain, we were heading down, still looking for some good lines to film… When skiing down Kenny and Mankei found a cool face… They told me to stay up as high as possible to traverse to get to the face… I had no clue where I would ski down… It was already around 1 p.m. and I knew if I would ski this, I would have to be quick as the avalanche danger increased due to the warm conditions…
Traversing the glacier and especially then hiking up to the entrance of the face was a mission… Sank into the snow, moving forward cm by cm… Hard work for a few turns… 😉 Kenny gave me info where to ski, I dropped in and had some great pow-turns down this face… Again some sluff came down but that was it…
Skied down to the car, drove to the ski-area “Rifflsee” and finally had some lunch there… Free food – always good 🙂 Some shots when we were getting food… I’m already curious how this video is gonna be… It’s an image-video for the glacier region Pitztal/Kaunertal and should be online in autumn… hehe, will be funny to watch…
The day wasn’t over yet, took the lift up, saw some lines from the Mittagskogel where some skiers came down this day… Awesome possibilities there!!!
Mittagskogel and surroundings...
Something work to do there next winter 🙂
The weather was just awesome this day, the snow was shimmering – soooo beautiful 🙂 Instead of skiing down the normal way, (it was already past 4 o clock), we decided to ski down a different way… The first part was great to ski, a bit crusty but good – getting further down, snow got less and as we had no clue what to expect we had to “search” our way down… Traversing over gras and bushes… How much fun 🙂
...grassskiing...
...Endstation...;-)
Great day at the mountain 🙂
Kaunertal the next day…
our beautiful mountains 🙂
Another beautiful day, couldn’t get any better… Björn was my skibuddy for the day… He is a cool guy, awesome skier, always great to hang out with…
Kenny and Björn...
...another film team on the mountain... with Harry Putz...
…hiked up with Björn on a ridge, as Kenny told us there would be a chute to ski and film… but when we got up there, we found out it wasn’t possible to ski… to many rocks… so back down and went up again a bit later trying out another possibility…
Mel...
...on the way up......coming down......like that pic as it shows how impressive the mountains are and how tiny mankind is...
…got the work done with some more lifestyle, slope and powder shots… Still thinking about those days and how lucky I am/was to spend them outdoors :-)…
…just got home from filming in Gastein where we had some good days on the mountain 🙂
Thursday although wasn’t with us – we came to Sportgastein in the morning to catch the inspection cable-car BUT they didn’t let us go up… The reason: 90-100 km/h wind 😦 Sandy tried everything possible to get us up the mountain because the weather wasn’t to bad at all… After waiting, waiting and waiting and Sandy trying, trying and trying, we had to give up… The lift boss wasn’t willing for a compromise…
...no chance of getting up the mountain...
...Pia and Giulia...
So we left Sportgastein and went to Angertal, a skiresort in the Gasteinervalley trying to get some footage there… Well, the weather wasn’t with us, clouds were moving in… Not a lucky day… So a chilling day, portrait shooting with Mirja Geh later in the afternoon, checking out the weather and snow conditions and a nice eve at a pizza place in Gastein…
Friday, bluebird, sunshine, powder – perfect conditions for filming… Again in Sportgastein…
...beautiful 🙂one of the faces...
It was quite a productive morning but around noon it started to get cloudy again and the light wasn’t good for filming anymore… Also when skiing down, Matthias crashed, hurt himself at his leg, so me and him didn’t go up the mountain anymore… My knee needed also a rest and I’m very, very happy that I’m able to ski and film with the girls again 🙂
Giulia, Sandy, Pia and Kenny headed up the mountain again and were lucky that the weather turned out to be good again 🙂 Happy for them 🙂 So they could film some more pillow lines and tree runs…
Pia loves to jump 🙂
In the meantime Matthias and myself had a nice afternoon in Bad Gastein with kebab, coffee and cake… We checked in to the Mondi Bellevue hotel – a four star hotel with everything you need 🙂 I needed to relax and take it easy with my knee, so whirlpool and swimmingpool were a great option 🙂 Spent quite some time there :-)… The best thing: EVERYTHING FREE for us 🙂 THXXXX to GASTEIN TOURISM for making this possible :-)!!!!
The decision was made that we would stay for another night and go over to Ankogel the next day if the weather was good there. Niklas Hollsten, an awesome snowboarder, rider of the Freeride World Tour accompanied us in Gastein and would also guide us the next day at Ankogel, his “home-resort”… Thxxxx Niklas!!!!
Giulia and Matthias checking news on the Internet while waiting for the train taking us to Mallnitz... What would mankind do without the WWW ;-)????Ankogel skiresort...
Got up to the top of the mountain, the light was good and Matthias saw a nice, short line to film. Pia was already further in front checking out the area, Giulia wanted to have a warm-up run and Sandy wanted to do a different line, so I decided to hike up there… Bootpacking up in a sluff that came down a day before was not a problem but afterwards I had to work hard to get along cm by cm… I was stuck in the snow up to my hips, could not really move forward, always had to push snow further down to my boots to get on… Hard work 😉 but was worth it 😉 Great pow there…
Giulia loves to ski down steep mountains, so she found a cool one to ski down but it was very rocky at the top-section… I guess she didn’t care, her ski was broken anyway, so she skied down that thing, looking good as always… Niklas and Sandy hiked up an awesome looking colouir, steep – little Alaska face 🙂 I was lucky to see both coming down, Sandy skied down fluid, looking great from my view 🙂 That was definetely the line of the day 🙂
Niklas called it an "unnamed" chute 😉
Until noon we were lucky with the conditions, later on the sun got to powerful, spring conditions and no more pow… So we skied off the mountain, took the train back to Gastein and went home…
…after having a laid-back weekend and getting kind of depressed of not being able to ski like I want to, I had to change something… and there we go – went easy skiing yesterday with a friend and training with my physio with bodytec…
Some info about bodytec:
“the miha bodytec stimulates agonist and antagonist plus deep muscle groups simultaneously. All muscle groups are kept on course by their individual programme – training and application can be performed in an active manner, with additional exercises while standing or even dynamically through complex movements.”
LUXURY TIME
30 minutes of training and you will feel your body for a couple of days 😉 The combo of training and EMS is quite tough but the result is great!
Knee felt good, so I went for another ski-day with Petra today… We went to Obergurgl to visit some friends but when we came in there, the weather was … let’s say not good;-) As the weather was still much better everywhere else we decided to go to Hoch-Oetz… That’s good about the SnowCard – skiing in 80 skiresort in Tirol is possible – AWESOME!!!!
I have never been there and Petra knew the resort as she had been a ski-instructor there… Easy skiing on the slopes which can also be fun but I definetely prefer being in the back-country ;-)!!! Spotted out the area and was surprised that it has quite some possibilities to offer… With hiking you can reach some cool lines…
...
...treeskiing in a different way 😉
...Petra taking the tree underneath her feet ;-)...Fischer vs. Fischer 😉 Old vs New ;-)...
When coming down the mountain we saw some old skis standing in the corner of the station, waiting for new owners… One of them – an old pair of Fischer skis… I couldn’t resist – as I want to have a retro day and ski on really old skis, I had to ask the lift-boy what they were gonna do with the skis… Of course I didn’t want those Fischer babes to end up landing on the scrapheap, so I saved their lives and made their day;-)
I feel like I can get back on track and continue with the girls filming 🙂 Lori, Sandy, Pia and Laura have been on the Arlberg for the last days and hopefully got some good footage… I’m already sooooo curious how our Girls Ski Movie will turn out :-)…
Another message reached me yesterday afternoon – Nici called me and told me that she got caught from an avalanche!!! Soooo lucky that she didn’t get hurt AT ALL :-)!!! They were skiing on the Arlberg in the back-country having a great day in the pow. While climbing up and trying to get in the next chute, snow got in motion 10 meters above her and Nici got caught by an avalanche. She always skis with the ABS-airbag but wasn’t able to release the device as she was already on the move down the mountain… Luckily she stayed on top of the avalanche, 100 meters further down she stopped and could give sign that she was okay… Even her skis got found, so she was the luckiest person of the day!!!! SOOOOO happy that nothing serious happened!!!
For all of you being out in the mountains – TAKE CARE OF YOU!!!!!!
“In the realm of free solo climbing – climbing peaks without ropes – Alex Honnold is the best in the world. Honnold, a bumbling and slightly geeky kid becomes a poised, graceful and calculated climber able to complete the hardest free solos. With his sights set on Yosemite’s iconic 600-metre Half Dome wall, Alex first travels to Utah to conquer the 370-metre Moonlight Buttress. It takes all of his mental efforts to focus on the climb, with 300-metres of air – and no rope – beneath him. Honnold has developed his own mental armour to protect him from thinking too much while climbing, but when he’s standing on a sliver of a ledge 550 metres above Yosemite’s Half Dome wall, his armour runs thin. To Honnold, doubt is the biggest danger and he experiences a feeling of dread like never before. Pulling himself together, Alex completes the 600-metre climb – something that can take other climbers days to complete – in under 3 hours cementing his place in free soloing history.”
The weather prediction for Wednesday: sunshine and blue sky, so I called Pia what she is up to do… She and her skibuddies had planned to go to the Hintertux glacier and ski there…
I couldn’t resist – knee felt alright, such a beautiful day, spending it at the PHT or on the mountain? No question – mountain 🙂
We were amazed how much snow had already melted up on the mountain!!! A lot of wet snow avalanches had come down and the winter season seems to be quite over for this year?!
...
Unbelievable, isn’t it????!!!! It’s not even April and the conditions are like in May… We were talking about that the “Piefke Saga” is really becoming true and in a few years we won’t have any glaciers, any snow to ski on anymore 😦 Not so unrealistic and that really makes me think 😦 Where is that all gonna lead to???
It was my first day skiing in the backcountry again after having torn my ACL 3 1/2 weeks ago. Usually you start off again at least 6 weeks after the injury if you haven’t had a surgery… Still quite early to be back on snow but I can’t help it – I LOVE SKIING 🙂 and when it’s beautiful outside I just love it being in the mountains :-)… It felt okay with my knee brace on during the time skiing but automatically I put more weight on the healthy leg… Skiing means having a lot of pressure on the knees and you can feel that perfectly when you’re not healthy ;-)… I was happy on that day that I had a meeting with my physio who triggered my muscles, loosening my strain which helped a lot!!! ThXXX GUDI, you are AWESOME!!!! I’m not able to ski every day yet but I’ll be keeping on working hard to get stronger and stronger and stronger ;-)…
I really enjoyed the day with Pia, Matze and Mankei, just cruising around spotting out some potential film lines for the possibility that it snows again soon…
…and the weather forecast says so! So for those who haven’t had enough snow this winter – lets pray for snow!!!! 😉
Mankei, Mel, Matze, Pia 🙂...skiing down a cool chute...Matze...many possibilities...
love my Watea's 🙂 - awesome skis!!!!
...chaos at the lift station... the conveyer belt was broken and the people had quite trouble getting on the lift ;-)... Piefke Saga live ;-)...
Another sunny, beautiful but waaaaay to warm day 🙂 It’s still winter, or at least it should be!!!!
Went to Hochfügen for the day – filming there – yes, I’m back on skis but still taking it easy… This day was an “easy going” day… Pia’s friends organized a small Freeride Contest for “the locals”… Great atmosphere and cool to watch! Some great lines down the Ostwand 🙂 but already very slushy conditions 😦
I had my Camping chair with me and watched from down below… Sandy, Kenny and Matthias arrived a bit later to film Pia’s lifestyle part… How she got into freeriding, with whom she went riding… Lots of interesting talks with interesting people 🙂
Ostwand, pic taken with my phone, so not the best quality...
…after a hard training session with my physio on Tuesday eve, I kind of felt my muscles the next day 😉 but couldn’t resist joing some of my friends for a skitour in the evening…
It’s not really my sport but it’s good training ;-), very social and I love it being out there with friends 🙂 Although for my knee it wasn’t the best, hiking up for 1,5 hours that was a bit tooo much… Skiing down in the dark wasn’t a problem though;-)… I was quite fun skiing down in the dark, hardly seeing anything;-)… Will take it a bit more easy the next couple of days, going on the bike because I don’t want to overdo it as I want to be back on skis soon :-)…
Dani and me were taking it easy, hiking up the mountain in the dark… When we got to the top and went inside the mountain hut, I couldn’t believe how many people were there! The whole “resti” was full of touring-people, more people there then at day time;-)
Thxxxx girls for the great evening! 🙂
from l to r: Eva, Babs, Mel, Toni, Dani...Mel, Eva, Toni, Dani...
…had an appointment with doc Fink at the www.sportsclinicaustria.com yesterday… Well, not soooo happy about it;-) As I trust on his opinion considering my knee and as he has operated my knee twice, he knows what he’s talking about and is an absolute expert when it comes to knee injuries… He asked me when we would continue to film and when I was thinking of being back on skis – either middle or end of April???… Bummer!! …Middle of April would be okay for him that I should be back strong on skis but not for me;-)… Training hard, building up strong muscles and of course being on skis ASAP is my mission… Listening to my body though is the key word…
I nearly told him that I’ve already been on skis but then I thought, well, might be better if I keep my little secret;-)…
I got a knee brace now for skiing, end of march/beginning of April isn’t impossible to be back strong on skis… Will work hard with my physio!!!! MOTIVATED!!!! 🙂
Last words for today ;-)… Appreciate that you are HEALTHY – it’s SOOOOO important!!!!! …and don’t think or worry to much about stupid things – not worth it!!!! 😉
It’s been two weeks now, since I ruptured my ACL once again… I guess I’m one of the leaders in having torn the ACL that often, 4 times at the same knee, 5 knee surgeries… 😉 That I would be already back on skis just two weeks after this injury – wouldn’t have thought that… And none of my physio’s or doc’s would have thought that either 😉 I guess, I’m gonna keep this secret;-)… or not? …hehe…
…had a great weekend at the Arlberg, sharing it with some good friends 🙂 Friday evening me and Kerstin went on a short night-ski tour. My physiotherapist gave me the okay that I could go for a short one… For one – a short one 😉 It was soooooo good to be out in the snow and on the mountain again – clear night, stars shining bright – AWESOME!!! Knee felt good when hiking up and skiing down, I’m in good shape and the muscles are getting strong again 🙂
The evening was a bit longer than expected – “Mäxchen” (a funny game of dice) was the reason…
Next day – sunshine, blue sky 🙂 Chris, Susi and me decided to go for a skitour, an easy one – in Pettneu, as there are hardly any skiers there and for hiking up the slope that’s perfect. Anywhere else at the Arlberg it would be nearly impossible to hike up at the slopes… Toooo many skiers!!! It was the first skitour for Susi, so perfect for her to start out with that sport, for me it was cool to get out and be on the skis again…
...different technique of getting apart the skins 😉...where is the snow???? ...Chris......the girlsz 😉 Susi and Mel...
Evening out at Hazienda… Great food, great people…
......happy men with their T-Bone Steaks 😉
Sunday…
Another beautiful day, so instead of going directly back to Innsbruck I decided to make a side trip to Kappl/Paznauntal… It’s one of my favourite ski-resorts in the “Oberland”… It’s beautiful there and hardly any Freeriders there yet… You can notice that by the old-fashioned cable-cars… Small, tiny ones for four people and just space for ordinary skis… I couldn’t stick my Watea’s in there, so I had to take them inside…
...my new Watea's :-)...
Just had the touring equipment with me and wanted to go for a tour again but when I got to the top and saw the beautiful scenery I thought it would be nicer to ski a little around, take some pix and see how it’s going with the knee… Knee felt good and stable, so I skied around a bit, shredding on the slope and having fun in the snow…
🙂🙂...the old "Bauernhäuser"......have you ever seen a head of a sheep on a rooftop??? me neither 😉 looks funny though...
The whole weekend off and I’ve done NOTHING for school 😉 Have to try to keep up tomorrow…
MELs' Blog 
