The Mountain Mastery 2012 - powered by Mammut, Gore-Tex® and PowderGuide - has been running since mid-January. Over seven weeks, the teams had to reveal, justify and comment on their decisions and activities throughout the planning phase of a freeride trip, and endure feedback from PowderGuide and the Mammut Alpine School, until the teams "Professor Jagens & Mizzi Tant" and "boarderlife" were chosen as the winners of the main prize at the beginning of March. They were able to go on a 3-day freeride trip in the area of their choice under the guidance of a mountain guide from the Mammut Alpine School and equipped with the appropriate Gore-Tex® clothing from Mammut in the Ötztal. Here you can read the conclusions of the winning teams on the final of the Mountain Mastery 2012.
It all started when we decided at relatively short notice to limit the maximum number of teams to 25. A real stroke of luck, as it turned out, because we hadn't expected such a wealth of detail or such a high level of entries. Without exception, all teams have already submitted good to excellent entries for Level 1 of the Mountain Mastery 2012, so we had to make a significant upward adjustment to our evaluation system.
And this level was about to get even higher. Even when it was first extremely cold below -25°C and then an extremely tricky avalanche situation made it difficult to complete Level 3 - "go out & ride", the teams' tours surprised us time and again and earned our respect.
And in the end, the winning teams surprised us with Sölden, a very rocky spot for this favorable winter in the Northern Alps, as their destination of choice. Three feel-good days and a number of amazing powder runs later, there was only one thing to take from the participants' grins: The Mountain Mastery 2012 was a complete success for them! But read for yourself how the teams experienced this extraordinary competition:
The impressions of Team Professor Jagens & Mizzi Tant
As if it wasn't enough that we were rewarded with high-quality outerwear from Mammut, Gore-Tex and PowderGuide for 1st place in the Mountain Mastery, we were also able to look forward to a 3-day stay in an area of our choice.
Since Team boarderlife (Marco and Cyrill) are from the Lucerne region in Switzerland and we, Team Professor Jagens & Mizzi Tant, are from Vienna, and unfortunately neither of us had time for arrival or departure days, we agreed on a destination that was halfway between the two of us - Sölden. This also suited us well in that none of us had ever been there before.
We were aware that we would find a lot of slopes that had already been skied and that there wouldn't be much fresh snow, but Sölden still seemed like a good choice - and rightly so, as it turned out. On Monday we got another 30 cm of fresh snow and then the weather turned spring-like.
So we set off from Vienna on Tuesday afternoon and just 6 hours later we arrived in Oberlängenfeld near Sölden, which was to be our accommodation for the next few days. We checked into the Pension Liesl, where the mountain guide Markus Brand from the Mammut Alpine School and Knut Pohl from PowderGuide were already waiting for us. The two of them had already made plans for Wednesday and also tested the hostess's cooking skills - both were very impressed with what they were able to taste.
Team boarderlife arrived a little after us, as did photographer Baschi Bender. After a round of introductions and a discussion about the day ahead, we retired to our very nice rooms and checked the quality of the mattresses.
The alarm went off at 6:30, we all had breakfast at 7:15 and the departure was scheduled for 8:15. First we picked up our lift passes, then we headed uphill on the Gaislachkogelbahn. We ploughed up the slopes in bright sunshine and high temperatures. The whole group fit together very well, the riding level was very balanced and the mood of the group was also quite homogeneous.
In between, there was also some "chicken kagge", which became the catchphrase of the trip... If our guide saw quite a lot of stones in a pile somewhere - "Hühnerkagge!", it was icy somewhere - "Hühnerkagge!", and when Knut destroyed his knee, that was also "Hühnerkagge!". Well, unfortunately Knut could only accompany us on the first day, after a knee-eating fall it was called "Knut kaputt" and the disastrous slope has been known to us as "Knuthang" ever since. Professor Roman did his best to bandage Knut's knee so that he was still halfway fit to ski, which gave us all a glimpse of Knut's bright blue ski underwear. Unfortunately, the diagnosis in the valley was that something worse had happened, and Knut went under the knife the following day. We would like to take this opportunity to wish him a speedy recovery!
In the evening, after an excellent meal, we got to see an avalanche presentation as well as all kinds of photos (many thanks to Baschi Bender, it was an honor to be photographed by you!) and videos of the day, before falling into bed late at night, dead tired. At least I was.
The next day was more "Yippieya-yay" than "Hühnerkagge". We also saw the dreaded ski pole helicopter (the hand signal from our mountain guide Markus with a rotating ski pole that we should speed up or that the next person should enter the slope - I think he already had calluses on his hands after the first day) a little less often. We found some really nice slopes, the highlight was definitely the very steep gully, which we all overcame without any problems.
Later, when we looked at the gully on the opposite slope, it seemed almost unbelievable that we had got down there so easily. That made you feel really good.
At lunch, Tobi and Marius joined us and we finished off with a very long descent to Huben, where the higher number of skiers in the group was of course a great advantage. We were kindly given a little help in the form of borrowed poles or a good pull forward. In Huben, we caught the ski bus just in time and then it was a wild ride back to Sölden.
While the others enjoyed some après-ski, the professor and I decided to visit the sauna in the guesthouse. Fortunately, we were even alone in the wellness area and were able to chat about the day's events. It was a relief for my battered body to relax for a change.
Later we had another delicious dinner, I was particularly pleased with the salad buffet, and the spaghetti arrabiata really heated things up again, after which a few more drinks were served to quench our burning throats.
On Friday, it was time to leave again, so we dragged our suitcases into the cars in the morning and off we went towards Sölden. On the first descent, however, I realized that the end had already come for me - so after the lunch break I left the boys to continue on their own and treated myself to a nap on a park bench in the valley. In the meantime, the men made 2 more beautiful descents. A few hours later, I received a call asking if I could come to Huben to pick up the professor. Markus and Cyril hitchhiked back to Sölden and then we drove our 3 cars to Huben to pick up the rest of the group.
Then it was time to say goodbye. Just when we had really made friends. It was a shame, but we hope to see you again! That's a threat! ;)
It was a really great time for us, with people who are just as interested in freeriding/touring as we are, with whom you can really step on the gas and from whom you can learn a lot. We really benefited from taking part in Mountain Mastery and investing hours of work in our contributions. Thankfully, we were not only provided with board and lodging, but also travel expenses, not to mention the Mammut equipment of course.
In this sense - YIPPIEYA-YAY!
The impressions of Team boarderlife
The whole competition phase was very well structured and exciting. You could learn a lot from the feedback from PowderGuide and the Mammut Alpine School. In the 3rd phase, it was exciting to read the individual tour reports from the teams and to critically scrutinize them. At the beginning, we had underestimated the effort required for the tour reports, as it easily took a Sunday to write the level 3 report. The initiators of the competition were probably no different. Nobody had expected such a high level of reports. But where there are great prizes to be won, it's worth investing a little time. And we were all the more pleased that we got our money's worth!
"Summer, sun, sunshine... That was almost the feeling when we set off from Lucerne [for the final of the Mountain Mastery in Sölden - editor's note]. But the feeling was wrong. What we found was an unforgettable three days in the snow! YippiYayey was the motto when the chicken poop of stones was overcome, even if the boards suffered badly from the hard ground, we were able to leave a trail on some untracked slopes. Markus from the Mammut Alpine School looked for the best powder runs with us, while Baschi accompanied us with his camera equipment and posed with us. Even if not everyone was so lucky - we would like to take this opportunity to wish Knut all the best so that he can get back on the mountain quickly!
The fact that Tobi and Marius also joined us for a few runs was great. Many thanks to everyone who took part and to all those who made it possible to implement such a great idea so perfectly! If there is another competition like this next year, we will of course be there again!"
Vivaa
Cyrill & Marco
All pictures of the Mountain Mastery 2012 final in the gallery:
The Mountain Mastery 2013
With these impressions, the curtain closes and this year's Mountain Mastery - powered by Mammut, Gore-Tex & PowderGuide - is history. But rest assured that we are already working behind the scenes on the 2013 edition, where some things will remain the same but many things will certainly be different and, above all, exciting and instructive again. So we hope that we will run the Mountain Mastery again next year and that you will be part of it again - including all those who "only" passively read along this year.
If you have any criticism, feedback or suggestions for improvements to the Mountain Mastery, or simply want to share your thoughts and experiences, simply write to edaktion[aet]powderguide.com or in the PowderGuide forum under Mountain Mastery with what's on your mind.
Many, many thanks to all participants and readers of Mountain Mastery, it was great fun for us too!
