Great early season powder!

7.12.2010

Planning to be out filming with Sofamovielab everything came different…

Wheaterforecast: 90% sunshine

Snow conditions: 30cm fresh powder

…sounds great…let’s get the team together and meet early in Stubai Valley! 

However time passed by and the sun did not wanna show up…far from it! It started heavy snowing and fog came in…

So we packed in the cameras and enjoyed some tree runs in fresh pow… soo much fun!

All pics by sofamovielab!

Winter season is fully on!

Tine

What a perfect Day!

6.11.2010

What a perfect day at Wildspitz!

Ready for exploring the possibilities at this time of the year Ruth, Flo, Helli and me hiked up high to reach the beautiful white snow on the glacier.

Starting early in the morning we met many race teams queuing at the train to get up to the well-groomed slopes. Passing this mass of skiers and traversing out toward the glacier we were suddenly all on our own and enjoyed the quiet morning on the glacier.

On the hike up we soon realized, that the crevasses are not well covered with snow yet and we had to be careful to choose a proper line.

The higher we got the more we came out of the shade and enjoyed beautiful sunrays and an amazing view throughout the Austrian alps. On our way up we realized already that it’s going to be a great ride down due to nice powder conditions.

Even hiking up the last part along the ridge to reach the summit of Wildspitz was in perfect snow conditions and an enjoyable to climb wearing crampons.

We enjoyed the view from the summit all by ourselves and found a windless and sunny place to relax for a while.

On our ride down we still had to take care about the crevasses but skied some turns in perfect powder conditions…

oh yeah… an amazing day in the mountains with good friends. 

Am ready for winter now!

Catch' ya on the mountains, 

Tine

Summertime 2010

Yes, summer 2010 was definitely great! I had a lot of time to discover the beauty of Austria. I spent many days climbing, hiking and biking around Innsbruck and some more places in the tyrolean mountains, swimming in beautiful lake Wörthersee in Carinthia and kitesurfing or windsurfing at cold mountain lake Achensee.

In July we enjoyed the great hike to the peak of Serles, one of the mountains we look at from the terrace of our appartment in Innsbruck.

Then in August it started snowing again and I was really surprised how great the conditions at the glacier in Hintertux were. So in the middle of the summer Eva Walkner and me skied some powder in the morning and enjoyed to ride in beatiful weather. It was a great feeling to be back on skies.

Meanwhile I travelled a lot to lake Garda in Italy. Just about two hours drive from Innsbruck and you get the feeling of being far away somewhere in the south. The small villages Torbole and Malcesine are well known for windsurfing, kitesurfing and for sure for climbing and mountainbiking.

After three days at Lago di Garda I almost needed a week off ;-)...I loved the time we spent there usually with good friends...kitesurfing from 6:30 to 9:30 in the morning, afterwards a great cappucino and italian breakfast, then biking or climbing and in the afternoon windsurfing... oh yes, after a day like that we earned a pizza and some italian red wine from our favourite pizzeria Al Porto!

And for sure after a great dinner we had to have an italian ice cream from the best place in Torbole and a drink at Winds Bar ;-)...life's great!

In June we met Robbie Naish in Torbole... he is absolutely a legend!

See ya next year at Lago di Garda!

Adidas Eyewear factory visit

15.06.2010

In June skiers Jochen Reiser, Marja Persson, Alois Bickel, Tobi Trischer and me were invited to the headquarters of Adidas Eyewear in Austria. There we met as well pro mountainbiker from New Zealand Kelly MacGarry. 

It was amazing to get a tour through the various production sites of sunglasses, optical glasses and for sure goggles. I was really impressed by the way glasses are cut, and the various materials are handled and put together.

Many thanks to the Adidas Eyewear crew and for the impressive tour!

Further we got the possibility to order a pair of optical glasses. There are way too many different styles to choose from and all of them look great. 

And yes, I found the right ones...check out my new optical Adidas Eyewear glasses...I love them!

Riggler Grownupstuff- stylish headwear

05.05.2010

The Austrian brand Riggler Grownupstuff is supporting me with really cool headwear. These are products made in the Alps for people who don't wanna leave the house without great headwear.

So watch out for stylish headwear in the shops all over Europe!

this pic has been taken in may up at Stubaier Gletscher- spring skiing is on ;-)

Season End in St.Anton

25.04.2010

Looking back to another great season, this time with less snow than the year before, we finished the season with a big party night after the race of "Der Weiße Rausch" and a delicious brunch for sure in Top 11 the next day.

Although the boys were not completely happy with their results in the race, everybody was happy that it was over...Congrats to Marina and Paul for winning the race!!!

Paul Schwarzacher skiing down first all by himself

Paul and Marina- winners of "Der Weiße Rausch 2010"

After my accident in Russia my whole body hurt and I really had no mood for skiing (and that really means something!)...so we chilled in the sun and went for a nice walk withthe labby Jean Paul. It really feels like spring time in town now...

Back from Russia!

25.04.2010

Two weeks ago Jochen Reiser, Axel Hörmann, Photographer Jens Klatt and me went to the Elbrus region in Russia to experience Russian lifestyle and culture, to ride amazing high mountains within the Kaukasus area and to bring home an interesting and great story...what a trip!

Compared to what we have here, Russia is a completely different world. We met friendly people, saw really crazy people in Moscow and although it became really warm had some great riding in Cheget and the Elbrus ski area.

Situated in the city of Terskol near the boarder to Georgia we either took the two chairlifts up to the top of the ski area of Cheget or went to the Elbrus cable car. If you start hiking from the top of Cheget for about 30min to one hour you get an amazing off pist run ending up in one of the culoirs you can look at from the valley. All in all you get about 1500m vertical drop riding on great terrain in one run. I really liked Cheget due to a big variety of options to play with the mountain formations. Yo can choose to jump some of the small or bigger cliffs, straight line one of the narrow culoirs or just enjoy riding one of the big faces.

me looking down from Cheget ski area...Elbrus with it's two peaks in the background

Axel, Jochen and me at the top of Cheget ski area- ready for a great run down

Taking the pretty new cable car up to the ski area right at the foot of Mt.Elbrus leads into completely different terrain. The cable ends at a height of about 3800m. From there you can take the ratrack up to around 4100m. Riding on the terrain there you really have to be aware of crevasses. There is plenty of wholes even if the top parts are not very steep. On the glacier you can choose of either going down skiers left all the way down into Terskol canyon, ending up back in the village of Terskol, or skiers right far out on the glacier, ending up back to the mid station of the cable car. Both directions are really interesting to ride. If you keep your eyes open, you really find great, challenging spots, where noone else has gone before.

Jochen, me and Axel traversing out on the skiers right side of the glacier

me riding on the Mt.Elbrus glacier

me jumping over some kind of crevas formation

Our Russian Camerawoman Dasha took some great shots, so I we are going to show a small movie about our trip to Russia beginning of next season.

Unfortunately on the last day of riding I turned the wrong way and got caught by the sluff of the wet snow. Instead of jumping the cliff I was looking at, I fell over it and thereby lost my helmet camera and my digicam. Finally I have learned again a lot about riding when sluff is following and I am happy that I got off lightly with just some small injuries.

So watch out for the full story and more great pictures in the magazines upcoming winter season!!!

Delayed Easter Fire @ Inn

09.04.2010

After saving the wood for a week in the trunk, waiting for the rain to stop, we finally had a great fire nearby the Inn in Innsbruck. Starting with a few people more and more friends joined and sat around the fire with us.

All of us had some winter-powder-stories to tell so it was great meeting back in Innsbruck and having some bbq sausages!