Goodbye cold cold glaciers!!

Soooo as November came to and end, it was finally time for the lower resorts to open and the end of frostbitten toes and glacier parks!!!

We made a little trip over to Kaunertal though on its last few days of Park. I went with Nathan and two girls also doing a season here, Polly and Bianca. It was a second stop of the Wir Schanzen tour, and we thought we'd make a trip of it and go and stay two nights in a town just down the valley. It was wonderful bluebird on the day, but unfortunately the park stays in the shade for most of the day, so it was extremely cold waiting around for your turn!!

The comp didn't go so well for me, although I think everybody was struggling to actually pull off any nice tricks as everyone had frozen feet and even legs by the time it was time to drop!! The little kids still seemed to have bundles of energy and warmth?! They must have had their Weetabix! The park set up was also really nice, I'm looking forward to going back up there in Spring when its not minus 100!

I think I ended up in 6th, but it was still fun to meet some other girls from around the area.  There are a lot of girls who live down in Innsbruck and travel up to all the different resorts, so it'll be nice to get to know some of them over the season and go shred! There is an epic view of the Dam on the way down from Kaunertal too!!

As there has been lots of early snow in the valley we've also tried to do a bit more urban riding. We went up to a spot just before Hintertux a few weeks ago and set up a jump over a tunnel.

The tunnel

 It seemed pretty big when we got there, but I thought I could manage it. But by the time we built the monster of a kicker, which was a good few meters back from where I had imagined, I decided to leave it up to the boys!! Even they found it quite a challenge.

Building the kicker

Beasty Kicker! Check!

It was pretty exciting to watch and see how something will turn out after making it yourself. Joe did a kinda sketchy straight air, being the guinea pig...he said the kicker was a bit whippy so just went straight back up and backflipped it!!! Crazy boy!! But he absolutely stomped it, it was great!

Joe Webster throwing a huge backflip!

After that we made a pow kicker off a cat track and hit that a few times. That was pretty fun! There wasn't a lot of base yet but it'll be a good spot to go back to once it's snowed a bit more!

Me doing a stalefish into the pow!

Some good weather has set in since all the storms which is nice. Unfortunately I've hurt my shoulder a bit so i'm resting or a few days! Penken park is now open and Kaltenbach set up this year is looking sick!! So hopefully in a few more days that'll be open and i'll be able to go shred! :)

Kaltenbach park is almost ready!!

First few weeks back in the mountains!

It's been great being back in the mountains, and finally getting to shred!!

So far, it's just been glacier riding as the main ski resorts aren't open yet, but they're meant to open this weekend woohoo!! I've mainly been riding Hintertux as its pretty close to our house, but have also been over to Stubai a few times.

Keeping warm in all my new gear! Thanks Westbeach and Celtek!

My friend Chloe (Hardy) came out to visit last week for a bit of a pre season shred and see what Austria has to offer! We rode a few days up at Hintertux, with a mix of weather! And then went over to Stubai. The park there is pretty fun but again the weather was a bit iffy so we could only really hit the rails. It was lovely getting to ride with her again as we did a season together in Chile a few years ago :) She's one of my favourite people to ride with as were good at getting eachother to try things!

On an off day we went to the climbing wall down in Ashau. I've never climbed before, but Nathan used to do it a lot, so it was nice to have a taste to see what it was like! I really enjoyed it, it's fun when you fall a few times (but stay up as you have the rope) and then eventually make it past a hard bit. The hardest thing i found was gripping with my fingers on some of the holds, as i'm not used to that. But the actual climbing bit wasn;t too difficulty (i was only doing the easy ones!)

Nathan getting extreme!!

The novices :)

On Sunday I went over to Stubai again with a few friends for a competition. The 'Wie Schanzen' (we hills) tour. There are four stops all together around Austria. The weather (as always it seems on glaciers) was pretty bad, it was super windy, snowing hard and a white out!! It ended up just being a small rail jam as opposed to slopestyle. Everyone struggled to see and have speed to do tricks, but I managed to come away with third place so was happy :)

Girlie shred :)

Soooo, since then its snowed loads all the way down to town. Haven't really been up to Hintertux much as you can't see anything. We went to do a street rail on Sunday which was really fun! Although, speed wa sa big issue. The boys managed to hit it on their skis with two of us flinging it in, but I couldn't get the speed on my board. Next time!!

Joe setting up the down rail

The boys managed to get some nice shots, here's Nathan!

Snow Park NZ!

Snow Park finally opened at the beginning of the month. We we're all so excited after patiently waiting for the snow to fall! We still haven't got heaps, but it's been enough to get us going. I got some pictures with Tom (TJ) from SWAY COLLECTIVE!  Thanks for the shots Tom!