Despite the poor snow conditions, this year's K2 Youngstars Challenge was held in relatively good conditions and perfect weather. A total of almost 100 children and teenagers between the ages of 7 and 16 took part in both contests. On the Nebelhorn near Oberstdorf, the venue for the freeride contest, around 10 cm of fresh snow fell on Friday evening, which made the so-called "green slope" shine in glorious white with fresh powder. What was a blessing for the riders was more of a curse for the helpers, as they had a hard time finding and marking the hidden stones and rocks in the landing zones behind the cliffs under the fresh snow. After a lecture by emergency and mountain rescue doctor Stefan Lechner on first aid in freeriding, the 7 to 10 year olds completed a workshop in avalanche transceiver search before their freeride workshop, while the older ones examined the contest slope in detail with the judges. The better of the two runs was judged. Due to a lack of snow, the slopestyle had to be moved from the Alpspitz Park in Nesselwang to the Cristal Ground in Kleinwalsertal. There, the participants could choose between rails, boxes, kickers, pipes and a jibb pyramid made of snow for their run. With sunshine and temperatures of up to 10° and a barbecue at the finish, the atmosphere was truly spring-like. Results OverallResults FreerideResults Slopestyle
Lucas Joas from BSV was also successful in scouting new talents for the freeski-network slopestylers and couldn't resist demonstrating his skills together with the young stars in a short jibbing session on the tube after the contest. The kids obviously enjoyed competing with a real pro and almost missed the winner's ceremony.
In addition to the extremely motivated kids, it was particularly pleasing that all participants were very safe and there was not a single serious accident or serious injury. The Youngstars Challenge, Germany's biggest event for young freeriders, was organized by mountain-action. The companies K2, 5ive, Marmot, Evoc, Alpina, Mammut, Codesys and Seeva contributed numerous non-cash prizes to the success of the competition. Results, pictures and videos at www.k2youngstarschallenge.de and on FB at mountain action
