In this story, Stephanie Posch talks about how you can reconcile a passion for the mountains with life in the lowlands.
Since skiing is a popular sport in Austria and there was always plenty of snow here in winter right into my youth, I was put on plastic skis to slide around in the garden as a toddler. I went on my first day trips to the nearby foothills of the Alps as soon as I had learned to coordinate my limbs and was soon able to take part in my first ski course in beautiful Maria Alm. The love of movement has always been in my blood, and the newly opened opportunity to hurtle down a mountain on two boards thrilled me anew every winter. The tremendous feeling of success when I came first again in the ski school race made me even more proud.
For years I loved skiing, until at the beginning of puberty I suddenly saw reports everywhere about a new, wild and fun-looking sport - my first contact with snowboarding. The following winter was disappointing for me when I realized that I could hardly do any tricks on my normal piste skis. Suddenly skiing had become too boring for me. At the age of 13, on my first school ski course, I had the opportunity to spend half the week on a snowboard instead of skis. The beginning is never easy, you fall all the time and collect bruises, not to mention the fact that we had to strap ourselves into the plate bindings with our ski boots back then. Despite everything, as soon as I was allowed to pick up the snowboard, I was completely convinced that I no longer wanted to ski, but snowboard. After 3 days on the beginners' hill, I had to ski again for 3 days, but I couldn't really concentrate on using the poles perfectly. The next year, I snowboarded all week and shortly afterwards my parents gave me my first snowboard, an Oxygen Allroundboard.
From then on, I had the feeling that I belonged to the freaky snowboard gang and that drove me to stick with it. When my cousin gave me his old freestyle board and bindings and I was able to ride my new soft boots for the first time, I felt more rock'n'roll than ever before. A very uplifting feeling for a teenager. I defined myself through my hobby, wore wide pants and listened to hip hop, metal and rock. Yes! This period laid the foundation for a deep enthusiasm. For years afterwards, I went snowboarding for at least a week every winter. At some point, however, that was no longer enough for me and I found myself in the mountains more and more often with my husband Roman. Sooner or later, we discovered the world away from the slopes. After I had done a day of freestyle coaching in Schladming, Roman wanted to go freeriding for a day. He booked a guide and for the first time experienced the good feeling of having done something for the downhill experience himself and sinking into the deep snow.when he came back to the agreed meeting point in the afternoon, he was tired but also very happy. From then on, he kept raving to me about his great experience until I wanted to try it out myself. One of my first freeride experiences was a day with a mountain guide on the Krippenstein - a tough school for a newbie with zero experience, but thanks to the professional guidance I was still whole at the end of the day.
I really can't say that it was love at first sight for me - freeriding is a tough sport where you have to put up with a lot of disappointments at the beginning. You keep getting stuck in deep snow and have to dig yourself out of the high snow, then you can hardly get up because you're carrying a relatively heavy backpack. You lose a duel with a mountain pine or collide with a shark (stone under the snow surface). You wear unsuitable clothing designed to keep you as warm as possible for as long as possible on the slopes, which causes you to sweat endlessly. But once you've experienced the incredible feeling of floating on the snow for the first time and then bouncing out again after making a turn, you want to experience it again and again. So I said goodbye to the slopes. At first, just skiing off-piste was adventure enough for me, but soon I wanted more - I wanted to climb and ski down mountains under my own steam, away from all the hustle and bustle of the slopes. That's why, in addition to my freeride equipment, I bought a splitboard, a snowboard that splits in the middle. With these boards, you have the option of ascending like on touring skis. I was financially strapped for half a year afterwards and did without all the luxuries such as going to the movies or restaurants, but it was definitely worth it. You could say that I'm fully committed to it. Together with Roman, I also took part in the Mountain Mastery 2012, a competition organized by PowderGuide.com and Mammut, in which you had to plan and carry out a tour in three steps. A team from Switzerland and we were then chosen as the winners.
I go to video premieres, I read lots of articles on the subject, I keep two blogs, I'm interested in new products and I follow the activities of my role models as closely as possible. The only problem I have: I live in Vienna. Vienna is a cosmopolitan city, it is regularly voted one of the cities with the highest quality of life in the world. Vienna offers a lot in all areas of life, but unfortunately there are no elevations worth mentioning in the immediate vicinity. You have to travel at least an hour by car to reach real mountains. Although the Viennese have always been at the forefront of alpinism, it is unfortunately not possible to conjure up adequate training opportunities. During the week, especially in winter, there are not many options other than indoor bouldering/climbing and fitness centers to prepare for mountain adventures. In my case, I also work full-time, which is why I've had the odd crazy idea over the years to combine work and my passion for the mountains. Example 1: Public transport gymnastics My love of mountain sports drives me to the point where I avoid escalators or lifts on the way to work and do free-standing squats in the subway. As secretly as possible, of course, but I suspect one or two passengers have wondered a little about me. By the way, squats also work great when brushing your teeth. At least nobody is surprised. Example 2: walking with additional weight I bought weights for my ankles (or wrists). They can be discreetly attached under reasonably wide trouser legs. They then provide a little more training effect on the way to the streetcar station (which in my case is about two kilometers). If that's not enough for me, I don't shy away from packing weight plates in my backpack. There have been some funny comments about this in the office, but only the tough ones ... I also often walk instead of taking public transport, for example from the office to home (about 7 kilometers). At the weekend, I do Nordic Aggro Walking - I put the plugs on the tips of the telescopic poles, put all the weights I have in my backpack and march for 3 hours through the countryside in the south of Vienna! Example 3: Urban cross-country skiing I have cross-country skiing equipment that wasn't quite as good as new back in the nineties. I would probably get pitying looks on the trails in the tourist regions, but on the Liesing in Vienna, I'm the only one making tracks at night. I put on my headlamp, plug Atari Teenage Riot into my ears and then try to make a reasonably nice trail. If the mood is right, the leg weights and weight plates are also in my backpack, so you can see that if you're passionate about something, you can stay in shape and keep your passion burning even away from the hot spots of the scene. Personally, I have the attitude that you can achieve a lot, but you usually have to be prepared to make an effort. Hardly anything comes by chance or by itself.
I do my best to realize my wishes and I have already had many great experiences as a result. I have something very special planned for the coming winter season: I will be living in the mountains from January to March and snowboarding as much as possible. I'll have to make a few sacrifices, for example I might risk losing my job because I'll be taking three months' unpaid leave. We'll have to give up our apartment because we can't afford to keep paying for it for three months while we're away. We don't yet have a new apartment for the time after that and we don't know what accommodation we'll find then. So there is still a lot up in the air, but I am sure that the experience will make up for all our efforts and uncertainties. On that note - follow your dreams and don't give up. I will keep you updated on my winter season.