It’s now more than a month ago that I came back home from the States. The 3 weeks I had in Breckenridge where amazing and I managed to ski a lot! I was a perfect way to start the winterseason, to get it all back and sort of warm up for the upcoming months.
Once I got back in Holland it was a big change, it was December, but the temperatures where still like autumn. Easy weather, no snow or coldness. I went straight into a week of studying and exams, but luckely after that week it was Chrismas holidays!
For the holidays my parents, sister and my dog went to do some roadtripping with the camper. At first we went to the camping in Flumet, it’s a small village close to megeve, with a pretty nice (and especially cheap) ski resort. We’ve spent the first two days chilling in the sun and riding some old ‘fresh’ pow. It’s insane to see that other ski area’s are fully packed with people during the holidays, but out here there was just nobody! So even the last dump of snow was already a week ago, there where still lots of new tracks to make!
After this first stop we went on to Switserland, Ovronnaz. We found a good parking spot in the village where you could perfectly camp for the night. We bought a ski ticket which included the posibility to go into the swimmingpool of a big Spa resort. So after a day on the road and a day skiing, it was nice to take a swim and a shower!
The ski resort of Ovronnaz is pretty cool, but kinda crowded.. We once again had a perfect day of bluebird, but this day the temperatures raised high above freezing level.. We saw a lot of avalanches coming down on the sunsides of the hills. After some family cruising we found a really nice hill in the shade, where you could safely ride some really nice lines! Only to get there was a lill tricky, but all went good!
After a good skiing day and a perfect swim we decided to ride down, cause the weather forcast said a lot of snow was coming in later that night.. and with the camper and the steep pass down from Ovronnaz.. it was the best to get down while it was still possible.
That night we drove up to Adelboden, in the hope that the next morning the weather wasn’t to bad.. But we woke up with a blanket of 20cm white stuff all over the mountain and a sky full off fog.. After some discussions we decided that skiing in Adelboden wasn’t really worth the money with this bad sight and as there was a lot more snow aspected, we made the choice to drive back down and and drive to St. Anton, Austria.
Once we got in Petneu (a small village a lill further than St. Anton) we found a big and nice camper place/camping. In the meantime that day we already had about at least 40cm fresh snow and it wasn’t stopping. So Robina and I went to bed early to wake up the next morning with something like a meter of freshies outside of the camper. Together we went skiing that day in St. Anton. My parents, as much as they like fresh snow, decided to stay down, cause you couldn’t see more than one meter anyway. They spent that day laughing about our dog who has a seriously insane crush on SNOW! He can’t get his head out of it.
Robina and I spent that day rolling and laughing on the mountain, it was not normal how many snow there was and you needed really steep hills to get enough speed for some turns.
The next day it was still snowing like crazy, but we decided to stay down and take a long walk in town and enjoying the white view. The actual plan was to drive to Mayrhofen for New Years Eve, but as it was snowing so good in St. Anton we stayed there, to ride some good pow on Sunday.. Unfortunately the plan changed, at it started raining like crazy Saterday evening and it didn’t stopped until Sunday midday. So Robina and I spent New Years Eve soaking wet of the rain in the town of St. Anton..
The next plan was to pack our stuff and drive further east. So we ended up that Sunday night at the parkingplace of one of the gondola’s in Fiss (Ausria). The next morning the weather was pretty good, so we all went up to cruise around. I heard some good stories about the funpark in Serfaus, so I was super excited to check it out! When we finally found it it wasn’t that spectacular, there where a lot of rails, but it took you more than 15min to get up with the lift for maybe 4 or 5 rails in a row. So ended up with some more family cruizing through the area.
That night they again said it was going to snow, so we packed in and drove down to Mayrhofen. By now it was already Wednesday, so we wanted to go skiing that day, party that night (cause it was my Bday) and drive through the next morning.
My sis, my dad and I where all ready to go, but when we saw the webcams from the view up at Penken and talked to some people who where coming down, we once again decided it was a waste of money. It was super foggy, reallly crowded and not really good snow.. ass Mayrhofen didn’t had that much snow yet. So back to the camper, made it a nice chilling day and went out for dinner and a lill drink in Scotland Yard later that night.
The next morning it was still shit weather, so packing and driving up to Zell am See. The last hour we drove through some pretty bad snow weather, but luckily all went good and we found a nice parkinspot next to a closed company building in Kaprun. The night it was snowing like crazy again, so we wanted to ride some powder in de resort of Zell am See the next morning.. So after a sketchy ride down with the camper we made it, changed, got ready and wanted to buy some tickets.. But once again.. more than half of the area was closed because of the storm, so wayyy to many people where skiing on just a few slopes and you couldn’t see shit.. So back to the camper, change again and took a really nice long walk to the city with the fam, which was super nice too!
This Saterday was the last day of our trip, I spend that day in town where I competed in a lill railbattle. In final we where with 5 girls, which wasn’t so bad!! The organisation on the other hand was one big chaos.. Some subscribed but the organisation couldn’t find the forms, there was no time schedule, so everybody was just waiting in the snow/rain some for more than 4 hours, not knowing when to ride. We asked the judges and they told us that the top 3 girls where going on to finals. But in the end it turned out all the girls where in finals anyway..
In training I wasn’t riding so good, but when I had to ride quali I managed to do some tricks. The setup was cool but kinda scary. At the bottum you had two meters until the fence, so offcourse when I landed switch I couldn’t stop on time so I had nice flight to the other side of the fence into the street! 😀
After quali’s I had to wait for another 4 or 5 hours until we could finally ride finals. Finals was with all 5 girls, 10 minutes. Isabelle (also from the Netherlands) and I where pretty much riding the same. We both managed to do a blind 2 out of the top rail, her’s was a bit cleaner, but she couldn’t manage to do a trick on the box at the bottum. My blind 2 wasn’t that clean, but I did managed to do a front 2 in the same run at the box down (counting was about the best run, so not overall impression). As the other 3 Austrian girls where doing there best but didn’t managed to do anything more than just riding the rail without tricks, Isabelle and me found out the 1st spot would have been between us two. So we where both pretty stoked!
We both got a lots complements about our riding and it was lots of fun, cause we where really pushing each other. But apparently the judges who couldn’t really see the bottum box, where doing drinking games during the judging, wheren’t really that serious.. Cause with prize giving it turned out, Isabelle got 1st and I ended up 4th.. So that means riding out a down rail to normal without doing any trick is more point than riding a rail to switch, or with a blind 270out together with a front 270 out in 1 run.. At first I really thought it was me, that apparently I skied so damn ugly, but I don’t know, this was just insane and I felt really bad for my parents. They drove all the way to Zell so I could ride this comp, we stayed till the end of the comp even though my dad had to start his new job on Monday at 7 in the morning and the road where horrible.. So yeah at that point I was kinda over this whole competiting thing, you get more fun and respect about skiing for yourself. Offcourse not all comps are the same, and I will deff ride some competitions later on, but for now I am kinda done with them.
The ride back home, luckily, went pretty good. Not to much snow on the roads and not so much trafic.
Since then I am at home, going to school a lot, had 2 exams last week, will have one more upcoming week, so it’s pretty stressfull. In the meantime I am skiing twice a week in the indoor slope and I am really focussing on new technical rail tricks. It isn’t going as fast as I hoped, but maybe that because I want to be able to do a certain tricks for at least 5 times clean in a row, before I start focussing on a new trick. You believe you got to have it on lock before you can say you can do it.
This upcoming Saterday I will go to Italy for a week of skiing for a Dutch freeski magazine, I am really looking forward to that, cause I can’t wait to get out in the real snow! I do have to make an exam when I am overthere, but hopefully that works out just fine..
So for now it’s study time and almost packing time! I will get you posted how Italy was!
Canisia Romani 