About 2,5 week ago we left from Finland and started the roadtrip direction Austria. We took the ship from Helsinki to Travemunde, it should have been a 27 hours boatrip, but in the end it was a +30 hour trip. First we was late because of hard wind, then when we came to Travemunde and should drive out from the ship, we couldnt, because they had parked a carry in front of the passanger car entrance and German workers who should take it away hade went on coffebreak and "forgot" us in the ship.. :) But after over 1,5 hour of waiting they finally came back from their "short" break and let us out. The rest of the cartrip to Austria went without any problems.

When we entered Austria it started to snow as hell, perfect timing we bringed the powder with us to the alps, and left the rain back in Finland ;) The boss from Mallnitz touristoffice told us to bring some snow, and we keept what we promised..

First day of riding we went to Mölltaler and was dreaming about epic pow, but it was closed because of hard wind, so we change the plan decided to take a chance and drive to Obertauern and that was a hit, i think that was the place in Salzburg area what had got most snow, so we got a supergood start with 40cm pow pow!

The next days we spended on Mölltaler glacier and had some really nice runs, we even got some nice "clips" on tape. Only "sketchy" things was that there was no baselayer what covered the sharks and the snowlayer on the east slopes with old ice under and packed snow on top. With small avalances/slabs here and there, and even one avalanche with a sad end where a young guy got cought.

Then we had a few days again with not the best weather in the resorts, so we did some nice tours around Mallniz with Nives, I went by splitboard and Nives by snowshoes.

Last week we have had some nice snowfalls and had some really nice powder in Wagrain, Zauchensee, Bad Hofgastein and Sportgastein (i think i had a new record in hitting "sharks" in Sportgastein, epic pow but no hard base), but one thing is sure, its damn good to have the Salzburger Super ski card, just follow the powder and strike.. :)

It was looking extremely good with big snowfalls until this morning.. I went to sleep with heavy snowfall and waked up to "fhönwinds" and +4.. Still not so bad on the mountain, just little bit worried of the snowlayers on the lover parts when the wet snow freeze and it comes new snow on top.. but the good thing is that it will be a good and hard base covering the "sharks" and other stuf what hiding under the snow.

On morning 24th X-mas evening I  picked up Nives from Spittal hospital (she removed few screws from her leg) and we are went to Zagreb to her parents to spend the X-mas there. Monday back to Mallnitz and shred some nice snow on Ankogel. Tuesday we drove to Schladming (Blue-tomato) to find some new boots for Nives and we found after hard work, but  back in Mallnitz we saw that the locksystem was broken on one boot so again a big "procedure" to get new ones on warranty..

Yesterday (wednesday) me and a good friend Bernd Horvath went of the first long "mountaineering" tour of the season. We went hike and ride Brennkogel 3018m in the Grossglockner area. It was a beautiful tour with epic weather and nice scenarios but also really hard work. We started the tour from Heiligenblut ski area, with a climb 300vertm climb, then a nice steep run in a couloir to the next valley Bretterboden 2200m. >From there we hiked up to the summit of Brennkogel. Most of the climb I went by splitboard just the last meters on the topridge i had to hike. After a chilltime on the peak we had a long run down to Guttalm 1900m and then again a 300vert climb back to Heilgenblut ski center from where we could ride back down to the parking. We just made it to the car before it went totally dark.. It was a good but really hard tour.

Now its time to make the final preparations for Ankogel X-treme Invitational 2012 and wait for more snow to fall.

Happy new year!

Hyvää uutta vuotta!

Niklas