FWT Verbier Xtreme

4th place at the Verbier Xtreme - another time close to the podium at the Xtreme like in 2009!! I had a really good run all the way down, specially the upper part was great. I did a exposed drop into a steep and narrow snow field, followed by some clean stomped cliffs. Unfortunately in the lower part of my run I hit a rock or something just while riding and had a fall - No perfect run...

Nevertheless I`m super happy about the feedback I got from riders and judges. Xavier de Le Rue was thinking about a similar line at the top and watched me droping in, as he had a later BIB number. After he told me he was really impressed how fast and easy I managed this part. Yeahh!!

In the Freeride World Tour OVERALL ranking I ended up in 5th place! STOKED!!

The Worldchampion title 2011 goes to my friend Mitch Tölderer - congrats!! Mitch showed impressive riding the hole season, 2nd overall Flo Orley, 3rd Xavier de Le Rue. Mitch, Flo and I ride a lot together as we all live in the wonderfull city called Innsbruck, best place on earth ;) Seems like...

Verbier was great like always and the "Freeride World Tour end of season party" was lot of fun - see you all next year again!! Ohhhh yeaH !!

Watch "Verbier Best of"

FWT Verbier Xtreme

BIG Final of the Freeride World Tour 2011 in Verbier, Switzerland. Once again I`m here and it still feels like a dream!! Only the top riders are qualified for this last event, being one of them is crazy! The hole village is ready, lots of side events are organized...

Yesterday we had face inspection and BIB draw. I`m starting with BIB 20, meaning 6th men as girls are starting first from the shoulder little further down. Right now it`s snowing, deep powder run down the Bec des Rosses guaranteed!!

Don`t miss the LIVE STREAM starting 10:30 on Freerideworldtour.com !!

riders meeting up on the mountain

focused..

FWT Fieberbrunn - 2nd place!!

For the first time a Freeride World Tour event took place in Austria, Fieberbrunn. Organization was perfect and lot of spectators came to watch the competition. Motivated from friends and family who came here, I could ride my line pretty much as planed and got 2nd place - Yeahhhhhhh !!!! Sharing the podium with my friend Mitch Tölderer with a similar choice of line, Stefan Häusl(1.) and Matthias "Hauni" Haunholder(3.) in Ski category made it a perfect "Austrian Freeride day" Congrats to all!!

impressive start gate

getting ready for the double drop

happy with a good run in the finish

Keep it up!! So stoked...

Specially here in Austria the media presence was insane. Sometimes it was actually not that easy to get everything done, as the main focus should stay on my run but everybody ask you for an interview etc. Nevertheless I really enjoyed that people seemed to be stoked from the show up on the mountain!

Now I am looking foreward to the big final in Verbier which is definitely the highlight in Freeride competitions! The legendary Bec des Rosses is a steep mountain with lots of rocks and so called "no fall zones" - no mistake allowed!

autograph session for next generation of freeriders -the rush didn`t stop, crazy!

FWT Russia

Sitting in the hotel and watching the snow flakes falling down... that is what we are doing today, as ski resort is closed because of too much snow! No joke, started this night and same forecast for the next days. Wish I could bring some snow back home, but exess package is just to expensive ;)

06:00 first gondola up on the mountain

Contest is done, got 6th place overall here in Russia. We have had two contest runs on different faces, an easy first day and an interesting venue for the second day. I ended up 7th place the first day and 3rd place yesterday. I`m happy about my run yesterday, first day was ok but it took me long to pick a line and finally I came to the start just 5 minutes before I had to drop in. Not perfect, but my fault...

my line - contest day 2

My friends Flo Orley and Mitch Tölderer got 1. and 2. place - yeahhh!!

The best run anyway was right after contest. Samuel Anthamatten, by the way winner in ski category - congrats!!! and me did an insane russian spine line. Terrain here offers crazy stuff, from magic treeruns to steep lines like in Alaska... it was super nice days here in Krasnaya Polyana!!! I`ll definitely come back!

"Doppelmayer" gondolas in Krasnya Polyana

Samuel and my "spine line" - so fucking good!!

riders meeting

FWT Russia

Just arrived in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia for the next Freeride World Tour event. Today we could ride some really nice treeruns with 30cm fresh powder - I like :)

Due to safety reason we can`t go for the contest face which was planed, so idea is to have a first run on easy terrain tomorrow and a second contest day on Sunday. Both runs will count together.

I`m not very happy with the venue for tomorrow, but I`ll do my best to find a nice line...

Here some first impressions of the "russian adventure"

unbelieveable:!! Security check before getting in the gondola

constructions everywhere

russian military taking care of the mountains

no words needed...!!

1970`s or russia anno 2011: old school !!

Stefan gets some snack from the supermarket

dirty roads

steet flair...