The winners of the Mountain Mastery 2012 - powdered by Mammut & Gore-Tex have decided. And so we are on the road in the Tyrolean Ötztal from March 21 to 23. In addition to the boarderlife team and Professor Jagens & Mizzi Tant, Knut, Baschi Bender as photographer and film director and mountain guide Markus Brand will be with us. Late yesterday evening, the participants from Vienna and Lucerne arrived at the Pension Liesl in Längenfeld in Ötztal. They were greeted by perfect Tyrolean hospitality as well as already planned variants around the Geislachkogel in the Sölden ski resort, so that after a short shakedown everyone was able to get a good night's sleep at reasonably Christian times.
Around the Geislachkogel
A perfect breakfast and a good feeling for the day was assured. We set off relatively early on the Geislachkogelbahn lift to a spring-like 3000 m. A quick lap of the piste shows that the group is a good fit. Both the attitude and the riding level; everyone is really good on the board. And so we can get straight down to what we are here for: getting out into the terrain.
And here we are greeted by the Ötztal crispy witch. She was to become a dear friend over the course of the day and Markus greeted her warmly with "chicken poo" every time. We almost proudly compared the surface scuffs every time we unbuckled our skis at the lift.
The second round took us straight into more challenging terrain and the positive surprise in the tourism slang "powder good". the motivation was immediately great. So it was not difficult for Markus to convince us to climb a few meters in altitude. And it was worth it! Really good conditions awaited us on the north-facing slopes around the Geislachkogel. Even a small torn cruciate ligament couldn't spoil the downhill fun.
Now it was time to feed the wellness freerider in us and so cheese spaetzle was on the agenda. But even that didn't stop us from one last run through a nice couloir in the afternoon. And so the tour came to an end. After a really tasty dinner, it was time to plan the next day. Steep gully or glacier tour? Or forest skiing?
In the end, we'll hit the ski area again tomorrow and continue to indulge in off-piste skiing.
So stay tuned...! More pictures from day 1 of the MM final event in the gallery
