Training in Hintertux, Austria

It has been a great few days of training atop the Hintertux Glacier! When the sun shines here it is a beautiful place and a great place to train. Getting up to the training hill is a bit of a workout with three gondolas, and thousands of pushy Euro’s, but once you’re up there it’s pretty epic. The view is insane. You can see to Italy in the South and to Germany in the North, and I guess Romania or Slovenia or something like that in the East. It’s pretty cool!The glaciers are nuts here. They look like they’re taking over the ski area. It happens pretty often over here that they’ve got to abandon a tee-bar or close down a few runs as a result of the advancing crevasses. I remember our first trip to Solden about ten years ago, training with Rob Roy and the original gang when Dave Dowd fell into a Crevasse. Luckily he landed on a ledge about fifteen feet down, stopping short of a one hundred foot plus fall, and was able to be rescued. No thanks! Last year we lost a fellow World Cup Racer named Clinton Wilton from Australia, who attended the SMS Academy, when he rode into a crevasse here at Hintertux. It was a really sad event. It is wise to stay on the piste here unless you’re a real local. It dumped about a meter here a week ago, so the conditions are ideal for training.We trained slalom the past two days in preparation for this weekend’s World Cup at Solden, Austria. We’ll be racing PGS on Saturday and SL on Sunday. I’m looking forward to a great weekend of racing. We’re training giant slalom tomorrow and then traveling to Solden. Below are some pics. from the top. I also included one from the wall in our Haus! Check out all the dead animals displayed. It’s no wonder there’s no wildlife in Europe, they’re all hanging in our pension. Enjoy! I’ll post news from the FIS World Cup in Solden, Austria this weekend. Thanks for supporting the new website! Talk to ya!CK