Jiippii jei! I won it:) 5 days of riding in Riksgränsen is behind. We had good luck with the weather this year, there was 4 competition runs in 3 days, a lot of hiking but so much fun in the same time. My qualification run didnt go so well, but good enough to take me to the final. The first final face is called Insteget, the 2nd face is called Ravinen and finally the last day we rode Branten, the most steep face I have been riding in a competition. It looks easy when you watch it from down but when you stand at the start it feels different, I had some small butterflies in my stomach. All the final runs went pretty good, no crashes, so Im happy for that. It feels really good to start the summer season now. Riksgränsen is always a good season ending event with good atmosphere.
An article in Finnish about me and my brother: www.relaa.com/sisalto/artikkelit/suomalaislaskijat-menestyivät-hienosti-riksgränsenin-pm-kisoissa
Big thanks to all my friends and my sponsors: Nitro, POC (jk-shop.fi), Aktia, Nyman LKV
I got 3 rd place in FWQ 4* in Röldal, had a fluent run. The snow conditions were almost perfect for competition, I was surprised how good it actually was, I expected much harder snow, but luckily we had some sun.
It was of course party after the pricegiving and we slept pretty long the next morning. We started to drive to Oslo in the afternoon, we slept at some friends place there and then we did some sighseeing in Monday morning. We walked to the Vigeland Park and took a lot of typical tourist pictures:) I drove Irian to the airport in the afternoon and then I drove alone to Kapellskär. I slept in the car over the night and took the ferry to Naantali in the morning. It felt good to be back home, more than 3000 km of driving from Mallnitz. Im proud of my old Opel Tigra, it took me all the way to and from Austria.
I started to work in the garden shop the day after I came home.
Last weekend there was season ending event in my local skiresort Meri-Teijo. I drove there after work to take a look, it was nice to see some snow still here at home.
Now some few days of work before the last comp. this season. I will go to Riksgränsen upcoming weekend.
From the Vigeland Park in Oslo
Looks like a cherry tree
Season ending and halfpipe funeral in Teijo(they will take the halfpipe away)
Greetings from Norway! The season in Mallnitz/Ankogel is over but the season in Scandinavia is not over yet! We went from Austria early on Sunday morning, drove up with the Tigra to Esbjerg in Denmark and stayed there for one night. We did some nice sightseeing at the West Coast in Denmark before we took the ferry from Hirtshals to Kristiansand in Norway. The ferry took just 3 h, we decided to drive to Röldal over the night. Here will be a freeride qualifier competition this week so we will take part in that one. The first final day will probably be tomorrow, the weatherforecast is not so good but we will hold our fingers crossed.
Esbjerg
The West Coast in Denmark
Hirtshals
On the way to Röldal,Norway
Röldal
It was time for one more competition last Saturday. It was face check on Friday so I went there to take a look, I found a line that felt good. I had actually good feeling before the comp., usually I feel a little bit scared or nervous before the run but I felt so relaxed this time. The run went good, one but check after the last drop in the end of my run but otherwise I think it was one of my best runs this season.
The copmetition face at Kitzsteinhorn
I got 2nd place in this competition, Amber took first place
I went to Mallnitz after the competition, I hadn´t been in Mallnitz in a long time. We celebrated the day with some prosecco in the evening. Me, Lotten and my brother were all on the podium! So it was a great day!
It has been pretty much filming now after Kitzsteinhorn. We had plans to hike and ride a short narrow couloir today with Bernd but when we got there we realized that it was too risky, it was a big crack in the snow in the outrun, so we skipped that idea and rode a big nice field instead. It is springconditions here, soft snow and sun. Tomorrow filming again, probably in Sportgastein but it depends on the weather.
This morning, on the way up to the couloir
The run of today!
Two competitions in two weekends and some nice hiking there between. I took the car-train from Mallnitz to Böckstein last Friday, drove to Innsbruck to pick up a friend and then we drove to Arlberg. We went with my friend´s car from Arlberg to Chandolin in Switzerland. We did the face inspection in the morning and went up to the face. I took a pretty safe line, because they counted two runs together, one run on Saturday and one on Sunday. I had a good run with some few drops on Sunday but I lost the first place with 0,01 point! It could not be closer but I haven’t had good luck this season.
In Chandolin, before and after the competition
I got the opportunity to join some guys for an interesting hike in the middle of the week. We started on Tuesday at noon and we stayed in a hut over the night and woke up at 5 in the morning to start hiking to Patteriol. The hike up to the top from the hut took us 5 and a half hour, nice hike with slow nice tempo. It was one of the longest couloirs that I have been riding, the snow was not perfect for snowboarding but it was a fun run, specially the last part where there was good snow. We took a short rest in the hut on the way back before we started to walk and ride back in direction Arlberg. I can tell you that I slept good that night!
On the way to Patteriol
The toilet!
From the top of the couloir from Patteriol
It was time to drive back to Switzerland on Thursday, this time to Nendaz. We couldn’t find any accommodation in Sion the first night so we drove to Martigny and stayed in a hotel there. It´s not often that I stay in a hotel so I looked forward to the hotel breakfast. We drove up to Siviez after a nice breakfast, took the lifts up to be able to check the faces. We didn’t exactly know which faces they were planning to have so we checked some few. In the evening we had to go to ridersmeeting to get some info about the comp. The meeting was late as usual! And we had to be up in Sivez next morning at 7. The organization could easily be so much better in Nendaz. A short meeting in the morning and then up to the competition faces. The riders could ride down when they wanted, there was no starting order, we just had to tell the starter when we wanted to go. I was one of the first riders to ride down, I wanted to go up early to not be in a hurry later on. My first run went as planned but the second run could have been much better. I didn´t make it to the finals but I stayed there one more day to watch the competition. The judging was a little bit strange in the women snowboard category, the judges made a mistake in my opinion, hopefully they manage to do a better competition next year.
One of the quali. faces in Nendaz
Quali. face in Nendaz
Some Finnish friends came here to visit us in Mallnitz, I didn´t know all of them from before but it was a bunch of nice and friendly people! The stayed here for three days and we got 3 days of good riding! It came about 20 cm new snow in Monday, so we went for some forest riding, I think we were the only ones riding offpist there that day!
The crew of today
Lunchbreak in the lift, time saving:)
Yesterday we went to Mölltaler in the morning and took some runs there. Then later down to Sportgastein and up in Sportgastein for one more run. Powdersnow and great company!
My next plan now is to go to Chandolin in Switzerland for a 3* FWQ contest
I will this time post pictures instead of writing that much, I have so many pictures that I want to share with you guys.
We had a scary avalance experience in Austria before this trip to Andorra. One friend got into a pretty big avalance but she had luckily the ABS backpack on and nothing serious happened, she cracked her board but didn’t hurt herself.
After some trubble we finally arrived to Andorra last Thursday. We rented a car and went to take a look in the center of Barcelona and then we drove up to Andorra. Such a nice, small country! We came here for the Eldorado Freeride competition in Vallnord.
Outside the car rental in Barcelona, more than +20!
La Rambla, market place
Nammmm
Semifinal face
The final face
My first helicopter ride ever! I was more excited about the flight than the riding today
From the top of the start, had to hike down some meters to get to the couloir
2nd place
Manuela Mandl took first place today!
The second FWQ competition this season is over, my result could have been better but there is still time for better competition runs. This time it seems like the judges didn´t judge the crashes at all in the snowboard women category.
I hope I still will ride at least one competition run this season that I will be satisfied with, I´m still waiting for that moment when you pass the finish line with a happy smile and hands up in the air:)
The competitionface in Hochfugen
Riders dinner
We stayed one more day in Hochfugen after the competition just to do some haiking and filming. I decided to go to Arlberg after the competition in Hochfugen. Nice to see some new places and ride with amazing snowboarders, who also knows the best spots. Arlberg has so many nice spots and amazingly long runs in the forest. It has been so cold the last days, many diesel cars doesn´t work and also the heating in the house hasn´t been working as it should, can´t remember when I have been freezing so much.
Hiking in Arlberg
We went yesterday for one competition to Montafon, my run didn´t go as planned. I had to wait more than 2 hours on the top because they suddenly changed the starting order. They said that the girls are riding first but me and another girl had to wait extremely long time to get the chance to start. I have never so far seen so much sharks in a competition face, the upper part was everything else than fun, I almost destroyed my new board on all those rocks. It was a well organized and nice competition besides this but I lost the motivation totally after waiting and waiting and my legs were so stiff. I could have done it better but learning by doing.
Today I came back to Mallnitz by train, it`s nice to be back “at home” .
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