going FURTHER in my home mountains

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 @ 09:10 | Austria, WINTER NEWS

There are a handful of lines and faces i was looking at during the last couple of years but never did give them a go. On and off those lines were talking to me, depending on conditions and mood.

The character of these`projects´ vary a lot, they are mostly something like a mixture of what i see from my more often taken pathes but then they are just this step or two further to reach them or to even check them out. These imaginary list contains anything from big AK like looking faces, remote areas i wanted to check out, to urban spine rides in the neighbourhood to `super´ ramps.

This imaginary list of `projects´ i never gave a try, was growing over time, partly for not having the right conditions but also just knowing that they are always there, not going anywhere makes it easy to loose sight of them.

And here we are winter 2012: First snow, then more snow and finally a lot of snow and quite stable conditions. Anything seemed possible and also jeremy decides to come over with his further project and crew totally motivated to explore our backcountry with us.

Over the years I was riding and filming with differnt crews and people and usually i was kind of the pushing one who wanted to stay out longer. Beeing out on a mission with jones and his crew i was delighted by the motivation and energy level they are on, anything is possible until there is a real reason it is not.

A magical sunrise before the weather moves in, Dan, chris and Bibi

The camera crew had as many challenges to master as we had to.JK on an early hike

Chris and JK on a mission to get in position

climbing up super ramp

riding the ramps spine

bibi in `midearth´ zone

i was looking at this litle run for years, never did see a line on it. finally it was time to ride that thing.

the urban spine was another kind of challenge, whenever i took the train down town i saw it and was thinking about riding it . It is in a way more tricky to ride than most of the mountain lines. Maybe because of the clear symmetrical exposure that doesnt keep any door open.

urban spine exposure

one more shot from our camp mission, it was as cold as it looks

mountain guide Klaus Zwirner was the perfect match to the crew! finding the toilet with his probe was for sure the easier part for him

Before trying to get up there from our base camp to ride it in good conditions we were digging different snow pits and scoping our options carefully.

Klaus digging a snow pit and things are looking not too bad

This is a picture from the upper third of the mountain. We all know there is always a remaining risk, and we tried to lower it as much as we could. One of the backup factors to choose our way was the kind of clean outrun. Anyway, close to the top ridge we released a slide that took two of us down to the bottom. We were more than happy to get away with only some minor injuries.

two days later jeremy made it up there save while i was climbing a line at the other side of the valley and Bibi was at a spot at the bottom to back us up.

You can be on a two day mission just to find out that the face you wanted to ride is not in shape. Then you turn around and there it is, lit up gold! When you are once out there you will always discover more than you were looking for.