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Spring Madness…
Spring in St. Anton. A time for rest. Nope. March and April was
the time when everyone got to flex a little bit and show off what
they'd learned this season, and to dust off a few of those late
season blues. We certainly had plenty to do in the Arlberg…
The Scotty's Expression Session, Rendl Beach, St. Anton
"The only thing that can stop us now is weather." My own words in
the last issue of the Pickled Liver, sadly horribly prophetic. After
postponing over a month however, the weather gave us not just respite,
but a perfect day for competition. The sun-kissed Rendl beach hosted
hoardes of workers and holidaymakers from all over, all gathered
to watch the more tilted fraction of the community hurl their frames
off two big jumps and over one spine. Sweet.
Thomas Lopparlainen take the title with a 540
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The crowd chilling out and DJ Ben's booth with
compere Simon |
The author having a shot at the title with
a rodeo attempt |
Loads of prizes, Mark Warner's Ben on the decks,
a free Eristoff bar and a great atmosphere awaited both competitors
and specatators. The competition was sponsored by Eristoff Vodka,
Nitro, Flow, Dakine, Natives.co.uk, Smith, Surfer's Paradise, Von
Zipper and Piste to Powder.
Making the Cut
In the end, logistics reduced the competition down to the two jumps
and a double kink rail and a spine. No matter though as the riders
went big big big all the way through. The opening rounds saw two
chances to qualify, and the field certainly didn't make it easy.
When the field got whittled down the riders were left with two jumps
from three to impress. Here's what happened…
Open Boarders
1st Chris Garside - NZ (Lech)
2nd Chris Haslwanter - AUT (St. Anton)
3rd Robin Henrickson - SWE (St. Anton)
Open Girls Boarder
1st Hana Sulivan - NZ (Kitzbuhel)
2nd Sara Tottrup - NZ (St. Anton)
3rd Dani Stone - ENG (St. Anton)
Open Ski
1st Thomas Loppalainen - FIN
2nd Nikvi Axbom - SWE (St. Anton)
3rd Christian Wolf - AUT (St. Anton)
Inter Ski/Board
1st Tom Rhodes - ENG
2nd Tim Hodgetts - ENG
3rd Ali Purves - ENG
Jumps executed in the final included spins all
the way to 900, backflips, lincoln air and some impressive styled
grabs as well. This reporter decided direct reportage was the only
way to cover the event, but despite being leading skier into the
final, a stacked rodeo 5 kept me off the podium. Ho hum. There's
always next year.
The resorts thanks go to organiser Simon P, who
battled on despite tearing his Cruciate ligament just one week before
the comp and still managed to pull off a greatly successful event.
Lech "Nice and Landed" Slopestyle and the Arlberg "Open
Space" Freeride Trophy.
Just a short gap from the Rendl competition, things got big in the
Arlberg. Lech and Zurs played host to an invitational only freeride
comp sponsored by Sony, Helly Hansen and many more. Two days of
fine freeriding, one of competion for lines, the second as a video
jam session, ended with local Salomon skier Alois Bickel taking
first place alongside Xavier de la Rue (FRA) on Snowboard.
Triple the fun
Following that, under sunny spring skies, the Big Freestyle event
of the year came again to Lech under the banner "Nice and Landed".
Underneath the Schleglkopf lift three big hits and a great set of
rails appeared…
A mix of local and international (54) boarders and
a handful (6) of skiers took the hits over a three hour jam session,
with two requested judged runs totalling the competition. The boarder
event was won by Anton worker, and last year's Anton Big Air winner
Markus Lemke (SWE), the skier event was won by another Anton local,
Martin, from Anton's Sport Alber, after the two Salomon riders,
including again local Alois Bickel, both bailed one of their runs,
despite throwing down Rodeo 9s and huge styled out superman frontflips.
A great day and a big crowd enjoying the sunny Lech pistes. Once
again your erstwhile reporter entered, not so great this time though,
with a dismal day missing rodeos again. Ho hum…
The Weisse Rauch
It come's every year, it's always oversubscribed, and there's always
blood. Imagine one hundred or so skiiers set off all at once from
the top of St Anton in a race to get to the bottom. Simple. Well,
then throw into the mix the fact that they have to navigate a slope
normally served by a 250m T-bar, and then that they set off in April
slush conditions, at 5pm, over some of the messiest slopes possible.
Fine you say. We do that on the way home all the
time…Well, here's the killer. With your legs burning, and the knowledge
that any moment a large portion of St Anton's skiing community is
coming down behind you, you have to make it over a huge metre and
a half high, and 30m long pile of snow, put there with the sole
intention of slowing you down. Then after that there's a visicious
3 metre spine to climb over. Well done to all finishers! There are
categories for Boarders, telemarkers, and skiboarders too. Well
done from the worker's community to Gustaf from Surfer's Paradise,
who took the boarders title, even managing to recover a high speed
cartwheel on the home stretch.
Report from Alastair Vaan
- Natives Resort Reporter in St
Anton
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