Beginning of the season here in the Alps looked really bad with no snow, but suddenly in mid of January it snowed a looot. So now we have almost more snow then normally this time of the year..

My first real comp. should have been Stimorol Engadin FWQ in St Moritz in end of Jan. but they had to cancelled it because of too less snow on the mountain(all snow had blown away).. First i was almost little bit "pissed" that they not even tried to have it, but then i realized that what the fu*k, we have epic condition here at "home" in Austria so no idea to be sad or pissed, when we can make splitboard-tours, film and shoot here at home in the mountains around Mallnitz with epic snow.

On same weekend when Engadin FWQ should have been, Markus called and asked if i want to join him and some friends to ride from Kitzsteinhorn down to Niedersill. And of course i/we(me and Nives) joined, i have so many years wanted to ride that run, but every time Markus has asked i have had some other programs.. But this year less competitions and more "real" riding.

When we arrived to Kitz. there was around 50cm dry fresh snow and in beginning of the day we film some really nice lines and big drops close to the skiarea. Later on the day we went ro check out the run down to Niedersill(it goes down northwest from Kitz. and you have to take Taxi back 15km to Kitz.) and we decided to do it, but not from the top entrance because of too hard wind and too much snow in the field we had to pass so we decided to do it from a other entrance what nobody of us had done before.

It started with a short hike and a long traverse to the ridge where we could drop in, when we came to the ridge we saw that the topsection was pretty damn icy and rocky, but it should be better more down. And that was how it was, first 200vert.m really "exposed" riding with of mix with rocks, soft snow and ice.  Then it went for a short bit to a thin layer of new snow with hard under the surface, but after that little bit more down it turned into bottomless epic powder the whole way down to the bottom of the valley. Then in the end it was cruising on a loooong forestroad down to Niedersill it was almost dark when we came down. So to compilate the whole run i would say like Markus called the run: a adventure experience.  :)

Later same night after a beer and some good food, we made a decision to check out Schareck (Mölltaler glacier-Sportgastein) next day.
So Sunday was Schareck day, we took the ski bus from Mallnitz to Mölltaler, then a few really nice "warm up" powder runs in the ski resort. Actually it was not "warm up" runs even it was supergood powder, cause it was really cold and hard wind. So we decided to check out the Schareck run from the top and we saw that there was much much more snow in the run as the previous years, but the snow still looked pretty stabil and good. We decided to do the run, but we didnt went in from the highest top, because we didnt wanted to ride over the huge mass of snow what the wind had brought on the top..

When we came in to the "Schreck" run we took it really careful, there was no wind on this side, but a lot of snow around 50cm of untouched powder and no tracks except ours. Snow was surprisely stabil and we could ride the whole run with speed and enjoy, 1400vert.meter in untouched powder.. :) Later after a beer in Sportgastein we hiked a couloir"next to Zalensenrinne" also that one still untracked (4days after snowfall) and ride down to the bus stop in Böckstein, and from there the 10min carshuttle back to Mallnitz..  Again a supergood day! The most of the easy access "big" runs(here in Salzburg area) done in a few days.

Epic powder couloir on Schareck from Niklas Hollsten on Vimeo.

While sitting in the car-train Andreas(the boss from Mallnitz touristoffice) calls me and ask if i want to join for a splitboardtour next day, after short time of thinking if i have power for one more "hard" day, i told him i will join. It was a good decision, one of the most nicest tours so far.

Early waking one more day its cloudy and foggy outside, but we decide to give it a try. I take my car to Flattach where i join in Andreas car. 20km more on a small mountainroad. We neede to put on snowchains etc(good that we didnt took my car;) to get up to the "startpoint" on 1500meter.  First kilometers in the tour goes on a pretty flat forest-track, then it gets steeper in nice larchwood for about 500 vert.meter. All the time we was hiking in strong fog and around -15 degrees so everything froze, but our theory was that just about threelevel on 2100meter, we maybe can come above the fog, and that was exactly what happened and above us we have perfect bluebird the last 600vert.meters to the top of Hochgrubenkopf 2664m, around us we just see peaks and clouds. It was supernice, to south you could see the Dolomites, north west Grossglockner, east Ankogel and south east the Slovenian alps. After a small break on the top we decided to traverse a short bit on the ridge to get untouched powder almost the whole way back to where we left the car.. A extremely nice days, even if it was a really long hike to the top :)

Next day i was totally tired in the body, but it was bluebird so we went filming on Ankogel the whole day with Nives, afternoon some packing and we left to Munich for ISPO, i met up with my sponsors and saw a few friends i havent seen for a long time.

Talked with some snowboardbrands, to get a new boardsponsor for next season... It always hard to "market" yourself.

After ISPO next day we had a deal to meet a friend in Leogang. He showed us around in Saalbach and Leogang. Have to say that after riding a day with a "local" guy i changed totally my opinion about the whole area... When the conditions are good(like this year with extremely much snow) you find weeks after snowfall really long runs with untouched snow, straight from the toplifts.. :)

After a lot of good runs with good snow here around, we went with Ela to Fuegen for Bigmountain Hochfuegen FWQ. That was my first "real" competition of the season and also one of the few FWQ comps i will ride this year. Hochfuegen had supernice snow and it was really fun to hang with friends, what i havent seen for a long time.

On friday morning they had the registration, then ridersmeeting what was late as usual, so the face check went in small fog before we got on the mountain. I dint really find any line on the comp face what i was superstoked over, so i decided to choose my line on the comp day and went for riding in the forest a few runs, before it went too cold. On evening organisation had organized dinner on the top for the riders, what is a pretty cool idea. I skipped the dinner and went to visit friends from Finland what is staying in Zell am Ziller over the winter.

On the comp. day it was sunny on the morning and -28 on the top, so we had good luck with visibility but it was pretty damn cold. I found a line i decided to ride, with 3 drops straight down in the middle of the "steep" face. I did my line, stomped all drops and didnt crash or buttchecked  anything, but ended up on a 8th place (not the run of my life, but i was surprised with the result) The rider who was for example 3rd had 2 "tomahawks" in end of his run after a drop in a "no fall zone".. And guy who was last in snowboard stand up his whole run, so the feeling for this comps went away pretty much, same was in skieers class one of the far best runs was not even in top 15 place.. maybe just this time judges had frozed to ice in their chairs...

But WTF i came there to have some good riding and meet friends, and that i did. I even met "our" new teamrider of Haglöfs Lotten Rapp there and we took a couple of supernice powderruns after the comp.

This week we been around here in Mallnitz and Gastein area hiking, riding and filming funny runs with good snow. Its now about 2 weeks after the last bigger snowfall and still you find lot of untouched snow.. Thats why i like Salzburg and Kärtnen area.. :))

Today is first day off for a long time, even if the sun is shining.. my body need a brake..
Next week it will snow a lot again....

Niklas

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