Friday, March 4, 2016

Around Austria snowboarding and doing stuff!

I taught I had updated the blog but seems like I've been alot more active on Facebook and Instagram.
If you want to follow me on Instagram: sainlymental

I've been back in Zillertal for 2 weeks now and more than one week was basically only park riding since we kinda missed the Penken park in Mayrhofen. We have been filming abit in the park but I need more for an edit. So it's coming but not just yet.

Last time we moved we spent the day in Innsbruck mostly just walking around. I took some pictures and would be nice to get some feedback so click on the picture to open the album.




 

City

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Another kind of boarding!

This trailer is just insane. How can a wave explode like that?
Scare stuff but at the same time just so awesome.




And here is an interesting article about the truth of stretching.
I's a good read, might help someone out there.

The truth about stretching! 

Another thing you don't see every day:

Australian skier chased by snow leopard while skiing

Friday, February 12, 2016

POW-WOW

So we finally got some snowfall in Zillertal last week and at the end of the week we got some really nice pow days. The first day we didn't expect much going up since the weather was super bad. It was raining alot but seemed like higher up it had been just cold enough to make the rain abit more fluffy. So on the first day I didn't film anything cos I didn't even have my camera with me but on the second day I got what I needed to make this edit.

Vide-Oh! Wow-POW from Vide-Oh! on Vimeo.

Last Saturday we actually moved to Tobadill. So this week we've been riding abit further west. So far I've been to Ischgl, See, Sölden and Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis.

Ischgl was really crowded. I felt like I was standing in line most of the time. Half of the lifts were closed due to strong winds so that was partly the reason. But from what i saw of Ischgl it wasn't to my liking. There's alot of potential to some really easy access BC lines but I felt like there were lifts everywhere. Some people like it cos you never really have to use transport trails but I felt like it was abit too much. Maybe I'll get a better impression next time.

See was really nice. I think there's like 6 lifts in See. Compared to the size of the place they have an insane amount of nice off-piste and even some really technical lines. Not much of any lift lines so you get alot of riding in one day. If See gets alot of snow I would say it's an excellent place to visit.

Sölden was ok, the glacier wasn't open so still waiting to see that part. The park was for some reason closed and under construction but it seemed like it was mostly super easy boxes and really small jumps. Got some nice powder runs in but can't say that I got that excited about the place. Have to go back to check out the glacier.

Today was Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis. This place was amazing. From all the places I have been to so far if I would have to choose one for a one week holiday this is where I would go. There is something for everyone and it's widely spread out so the crowd of people just spreads out all over the place. Best pistes so far, profile and quality vise. The jib park was insane, I think it was 3 different lines side by side, each with at least 10 obstacles in one run. The kicker line was ok I guess. medium size jumps with low hangtime. On the plus side they have a big air bag which is always for. Offpiste for everyone from easy to gnarly. Cliff drops, tree lines and endless potential if you're up for some hiking. I was really amazed by this place.

Things that annoy me: What is the matter whit drivers in Austria? Even if you're speeding 10km/h some idiot will drive 2m behind you at all times. When he after 5km realizes you're not going to go any faster he passes you even if there isn't a clear view of what's ahead, just to end up behind the next car. Then, after a few more km he stops at a grocery store where he isn't in any kind of hurry. It's like most drivers here have a death wish.

Another thing that comes to mind is that coming from Finland I'm not used to having to deal with 1 & 2 cent coins. They keep stacking up and people seemed to just get annoyed when you use them to pay for something.

My mind just when completely blank so I guess I just try to post shorter posts abit more often.
Till next time.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Picture time Zillertal!

First run in the alps

Really snowy day in Gerlos, magical treeriding.

After a long day in the snow, my mustache was frozen solid.

Extremely happy rider in Hintertux

Tux

Tux
Eemeli in Tux
The girls hyped about the weather.



Faceshots on the side of the slopes

Amazed by theese rando guy going up black slopes. There's alot of theese people here.

Stoked

Weather getting clearer after a day of alot of snow and no vision what so ever.

Last Chair





Funny thing about the first picture. We were so hyped on getting up that we ended up taking the wrong lift from Mayrhofen, we taught we were in Mayrhofen but got super confused trying to find our position on the trailmap. After a while we realized we were in Ahorn on the other side of the valley. It's really small so we just rode Ahorn for a while before moving over to Mayrhofen.

I've seen rando skiers in every resort we have been to, skinning from the bottom to the top. I'm not new to rando skiers but I feel like theese people are really strong minded since they hike up a slope right next to the lift.

Because someone will end up asking anyways I'm gonna quickly just say this. Yes I am traveling with 1 guy and 2 girls, but they are all just friends.

I will try to get some tourist pictures taken on my Canon this week.

Season is ON! Like really on.

So all of December I was in Levi as usual. It's always nice to see the people there since you barely see anyone during the summer. Weather was like it usually is around that time, some days you might have -1 and then a few days late the temperature drops to -25. A few days after I left Levi they got -34 I think, soo thankful I wasn't there working when it happened.



Most of the time I was just working. I did get to ride some park but mainly after a long day of working when it's too dark to film anything and on my days off the weather ended up being quite terrible. Only thing I ended up filming was some faceshots in the small amount of pow I could find on the side of the slope. It turned out so bad that I actually just deleted it. The base was way to weak to go ride in the trees.


So christmas and newyears passed by pretty quickly and on the 5th of Jan I left Levi, went to Helsinki, repacked, and headed towards Austria.


So I've been in Austria now for 2 weeks and it's been epic. The snow base is not that good but the last 4 days we've been getting so much snow that it's hard to stay away from the off-piste. This results in ruining the base of your boards real nicely. The service for my board ended up costing 40€ which was abit of a shock but they did a really nice job. If anyone is interested in where I took my board it was Moreboards in Mayrhofen.


We bought the Tirol Snow Card which is like a combo ski pass that is valid in something around 90 different resorts. During this first week we've been to 4 different ones. Around 7 I guess if you count the ones that are connected to eachother as different resorts.


The first weekend we tried going out. This ended up with us eventually just drinking at home since the taxi never picked us up. We called it like 3 times and the same driver confirmed that he would be on his way. I feel like he might have been one of those drivers who pick you up at the point when he happens go drop off another costumer close by.

So last night we were successful because of better planning. We took the train to town. Only "problem" is that the last train leaves at 20:20 or something so you end up starting the evening quite early. So today was kinda just about regaining my strength, which is an idiotic way to spend your day away from the slopes. But, it had to be done.



This week we actually got a super fun day in Hintertux. The weather was abit terrible but it had it's upsides. The few who were there mainly spent the day on the slopes further down where it was less windy and better visibility. This left us with some super easy-access powder areas. I think we spent like 3/4 of the day riding this area between two slopes that for some reason had really good snow. I filmed abit even if the visibility wasn't too good but it turned out ok. Was planning on putting a clip together tomorrow night. Our internet connection is the most unreliable you can get so let's just hope I can get it uploaded.



Hintertux in general to me seems like a place that has good riding as long as they have alot of snow and it's a bluebird day. The clouds seem to almost stick to the mountain and since it's a really high mountain the top part has been really windy. The wind combined with the snow and clouds played tricks on us real bad, there was no way of knowing what is up and what is down or if it was ice or powder in front of you. It was super funny going on the t-bar to the top. The lift trail was covered in 20cm of fresh, coming half way up i suddenly hit a wall of snow. With the back foot unstrapped i didn't get very far at the point where I was waist deep in snow. I think all of us fell off the lift at that point. You really don't expect that much snow on the lift trail.


Even if this isn't that far away from home there are so many things that make you feel like you're somewhere super far away. First of all I would say that it's about as easy to get your point trough to someone in Thailand as it is here. Surprisingly often you end up in a situation where you end up getting service in german even if you tell them you only speak english, no matter how polite you are.

There seem to be alot of stores that don't accept Visa which to me is weird. Yesterday I was in a grocery store that would only accept AMEX and Maestro. No Visa, no MasterCard. So basically you get used to always having to carry abit of cash with you. Up on the slopes they only take cash in the restaurants and bars.

On the slopes people have no respect what so ever when it comes to standing in line. everyone cut in line, alot of people even cut in line even when there is no free space anywhere. Too many seem to have no idea what so ever how to pick a spot where you wait for your friends. You get people going trough the ticket gate at the lift and then just stop in the small area in between the ticket gate and the lif to wait for the rest of the group. You get large groups who block all of the gates while waiting for the seasons to change. After 2 weeks I'm still completely amazed by this chaos around the lifts. One day I girl in her 20s started complaining to me because I wouldn't let her cut in front of me in the lift line. She most def got the babe of the day price for that one.


Oh yeah, they use 2&1 cent coins here so you end up having alot of those small annoying barbie coins that are worth more in the material they are made of than the actual value of the coin.


There alot of stuff to write about but I will leave something for later. I need to put up some pictures and edit some pow riding to make this blog abit more interesting. Hoping to get it done tomorrow.

While writing this the damn internet shut down again so might be that I'll get this posted tomorrow morning if someone wonders how some of the stuff I've writted don't add up.

Goooooooooood Night!