News

It has been a long time since my last post so there are some news.

For this season I'm riding for Obergurgl Hochgurgl. I'm very pleased to ride for such a nice resort with awesome opinions for freeriding.

Thanks to Marmot for supporting me the last seven years, but ever and anon it's time for a change. So now I`m working together with my longtime partner Ortovox (clothes and security stuff). I'm really looking forward to ride with the new stuff.

I had an awesome summer with my girlfriend in Indonesia. We surfed almost every day and just enjoyed life. (And luckily ... this year i came back with two healthy feet) .

So right now I try to get ready for winter. Work on my base endurance, power and agility. I already could enjoy my fist powder-turns. 

FWT 2015

Yeah! Now it's official! After seven years competing int the FWQ I qualified for the next years Freeride World Tour.

The strange thing is that i qualified in that year where i thought i have the smallest chances. After having the surf-summer of my life in Indonesia ...

... i had a small motorbike accident on the way to the airport. A car went over my right foot and twisted it. 

my right foot after 10 days

Luckily no bones were broken but some tendons were torn and the rest of the soft tissue was harmed. 

I couldn't really walk until the beginning of December and  started "real" snowboarding in the mid of January. 

Unexpectedly the contest season went quite good. 

• 3rd place 4* Bigmounatin Hochfügen  
• 8th place 3* Open Faces Axamer Lizum
• 3rd place 2* Open Faces Kappl
• 10th place 3* Open Faces Montafon
• 7th place 3* X-Over Kitzsteinhorn
• 1st place 4* Open Faces Obergurgl

At the end it finished the season as 6th overall FWQ and as 3rd from the Europe/Asia/Australia/NZ region and as Flo Orley is already qualified i got a ticket for the next years tour.

 I want to thanks all my Sponsors Marmot, Alpina, Ortovox, Arbor, AustriAlpin and Sp-United/Go Pro Gadgets for the support through the season. 

A special thanks to my contest/travel buddies: Fabi with Camper Freddy, Jochen, Jules the King, Neil, Juan, ... we had a great time!!

1st 4* FWQ Obergurgl

On saturday the last competition of the season was held at Obergurgl. The Open Faces 4* Obergurgl. We had a really challanging steep good face with good powder snow in it. I chose a line in the middle and could finish it almost as I  planed. In the end i won the event. Now I'm so happy that the season came to a good end with 3 podiums and a good overall ranking.

Pics by Open Faces

FWQ Kitzsteinhorn and late season powder

The competition at the Kitzsteinhorn is well known as a good spring slush competition and we got that slush this year as well. The bad thing was that the snow was strong the last weeks and melted the snow from all the take offs. so there were not that many possibilities unless you were keen to ride some grass ( like the Kiwis did). I couldn't really find a good line so i decided to go for a fast fluent line with a couple of small drops. I came 7th.

 Next weekend is the last 4* FWQ of the season and they have a really nice steep (yeahhhh) face with a lot of options. I'm looking forward to that event and i hope i can end the comp-season with a good result.

Face Obergurgel

And FINALLY the northern Alps got some powder as well!!!!!

And here are some pictures from the last Comp at Montafon. (Pics by Mia and Brey)

FWQ Montafon and filming with Whiteroom

This season is not an easy one for competitive freeriding. The first choice faces get changed to second choice faces, competitions  get canceled, ... and it was the same for the FWQ Montafon. Because of an avalanche one day before the competition they had to change the venue. My first impression of the new face was not really good. A tracked, short and not really steep slope. It took me some time to find a good line and in the end I have to say the venue was not that bad. It offered some good drops and the snow was better than it looked like.  I choose a line with a double in the top and two medium size cliffs in the middle. Unfortunately i i had a butt-check at the top double and so i finished 10th.

(I'm sorry, i left my gopro in the car)

my line

Even if it looks like that we have a really bad winter here in the northern alps, I had some good filming days with the guys from Whiteroom-productions.

Björn and Max checking the "morningface"

 last line of the day. was a nice one!!!

thx to Alpina for the new google

FWQ Kappl

Kappl has a really nice high quality contests face. I chose a easy line with some drops and could land all. I know that it was not the best I could show but I'm happy that in the end I could stand again on the podium. 3rd place again. I got some important points for the FWQ and the Austrian Freeride Masters.

pic by www.open-faces.com

Axamer Lzum 3* FWQ 8th place

The competition at the Axamer Lizum is like a kind of homecompetion for me as it is really close to my home. I know the face as it offers some playful terrain and has an easy access. Unfortunately the face was in really bad conditions for the comp. The wind blew all the snow out of the face and so there were not that many options to go.  I had bib number 19 and chose a line where i hoped that not that many people would go. It turned out that i was completely wrong. Almost everybody took the same line and so i had to deal with washed out shoots and a lot of sharks. I couldn't ride my line as i wanted and ended 8th. 

So know I'm gonna head down south for some filming and hopefully some deep pow. The next competition is next weekend in Kappl on the FWT face. I hope we get some good snow as it is a nice face with a lot of option ... if the snow conditions are good.

POV. My run

Big Mountain Hochfügen 4* FWQ 3rd Place

The competition at Hochfügen is for sure one of the FWQ events with the best reputations, the highest level and a really challenging face. This year the conditions were not that good as the years before. A strong wind blew out all the snow of the top part and in the night before the comp some centimeters of fresh snow covered all the stones and gras. Luckily i had bib number 6 and could enjoy some untracked snow. I found a good line but couldn`t stomp my last cliff. In the end i finished 3rd and I'm really proud to be on the podium at such a nice competition. This 3rd place gives me a good base for the rest of the competion saison. Let's see what it is good for.

pic by Daniel Zangerl

pic by Daniel Zangerl

 pic by Daniel Zangerl

pic by Daniel Zangerl

 pic by Daniel Zangerl

 pic by Daniel Zangerl