RFC the 2nd

... so it's snowing really hardcore since 25 hours and there is about 1m of fresh pow pow up there on the mountain and an avalanche danger of 5. So we just got told that the competition is cancelled and our first run count at all, that means I'm 21nd in the Ski ranking! This was really a strange experience with the volcano eruption, all flights are still cancelled and we will not be able to fly home on Monday needer. But it's pretty cool here, so it will be nice to get some more impressions of Norway :-)

I started my run not that good as wanted to do it, because the face was extremely rolling in and difficult to orientate and all the frozen muggles,tracks and mini spines didn't make it easy to ski fast and so I didn't get my cliffs at the upper part... but at least I stomped the exit cliff which was about 10m into a really hard landing... but that's Norway :-)

So here are a few impressions and big congratulations to Alex who get 2nd in the Snbrd ranking!

my line

it was cold and windy in the morning

the view from the start and Röldals lake in the backgroound

burger time :-)

Schmalex was so stoked and partying with Lalex

freaking out party crowd

the video of my run is just uploading on vimeo... should be available in half an hour at:

DCR Röldal Freeride Challenge 2010 from Daniel Regensburger on Vimeo.

Röldal Norway the 1st

on Tuesday Alex and me cought the plain to Vienna and then to Oslo to get to the 10th edition of the Röldal Freeride Competition... but to get there we had to travel the whole day long... we left Innsbruck at 6.30 am and arrived in Röldal at 9.00 pm after a nearly endless drive from Oslo to Röldal along really nasty roads... today should have been the first competition day, but we had some snowfall in the morning and caused by the volcano eruption in Iceland the rescue heli didn`t get a flying permit, so we just had a small expression session and we are all qualified for tomorrow, final day one, NICE!!! The conditions are changing during the day, from frozen hard snow in the morning to nice spring snow in the afternoon... Now we`re chilling in the garden in front of the OLDEST cabin of Röldal and are grilling some chicken with some beer :-) getting prepared and strong for tomorrow...

Alex, aka the nöööööörd :-) waiting on the vienna airport

somewhere on the way to Oslo

me carring our ski and snbrd stuff

on the road...

... with this nasty bastard ...

we were so lucky with our sleeping opportunity ... we got the oldest and really original cabin of the whole village

Hicking and exploring new lines

Sorry that I didn't found the time to give you some updates :-)
but here we go...
what did I do the last few weeks? Aside from learning for another exam and some other mandatory responsibilities I had some nice film days including some treeruns and a really interesting nightsession too... And what's better than hicking up some venues, getting more and more away from the smoggy, noisy & stressy city, diving into absolute silence, taking deep breaths of the clean mountain air, feeling the sun shining on your face and the pleasant anticipation for the rewarding ski run down after reaching the top :-) sounds a little bathetic, but that's the way it is!

So enough words now, just watch through the pix, they are self-explanatory...



Oh I nearly forgot to say taht the guy with the yellow jacket is Joi, a really good ski buddy..

...3, 2, 1, straightline :-)

good hicking skins are indispensable, I can really recommend those from Kohla...

...climbing up some steep tight couloir, in really solid and stable snow...

...then we had to install our rope to catch the good old pow pow on the north sided slope...

so what should I say more, than every step was worth it !!

to be continued :-)

Nendaz 3* FWQ

Last weekend was the Nendaz 3 star Qualifier in the french part of Swizerland. I got a ski starting place in the open... so after after a few traffic jams on the highway around Zürich, nearly no space in the car and 7,5h later we arrived in Nendaz. Which is a really nice little village in a typical old swiss style :-) The next day was the open, where we were able to choose two out of three contestfaces. It didn't take me a long time to decide which faces I would like to go. So the first one was not very long, but steep and with a lot of features in it. A couple of lift rides and a 40min hike later I was on the top and ready to go. But there was a first come, first serve system so I had to watch some riders going down first. Finaly the starter gave me the countdown to go... The venue was a bit steeper than I expected it, but it was fun to ride and I had a very good run.

The second face was a little bit longer and we were only allowed to do the inspection from the side (which was somehow strange). At the top I had to wait about an hour watching one going down after another... I had a good feeling about the line that I had chosen... a fast line with 3 drops and the highest in the middle... so I droped in, a few turns and first drop. The landing wasnt soft at all, but still good to land... I knew I had to do two big turns and then to the right to get to the next cliff... I dont know why but I missed this entry and went too late to the right side, so there was only the last small drop left and in the end I just had a solid, fast, but not really spectacular run...

In sum I got 19th of ca. 65 ski competitors, but only 12 were chosen for the final... so I'm pretty sure if I wouldn't have missed that cliff, I would have been really close or maybe in the final... but at least I got the reassurance to be able to compete on ski too :-) thats nice!!! So the next day I brought some beer up to the mountain to watch the final... which was a really great show!!! Cool to watch!!!


Alex in the middle part of the final face


Me and Joi watching the show...

... and also Check out my two runs on video...

DCR at Nendaz 3star FWQ from Daniel Regensburger on Vimeo.

Pitztal Wildface

After some snow yesterday we had a beautiful weather and good conditions today.
The Pitztal Wildface is a offpiste time race with 6 direction gates and a vertical drop of (a bit more than) 1500m and 4,6km length...

This view shows the whole run from the top of the mountain to the scott tent

after I saw some crashes from the starting gate, I expected difficult conditions, especially with my high starting number, so I decided to go for a fluid but safe run...
while my run I figured out that it was much more exhausting than I expected it, so the real challenge was to keep on skiing fast over all the tracked terrain, but I made it to the 7th place!
In a time of 08:31.91min

Congratulations to Alex, who won the Snowboard ranking and Fabi "a.k.a. Junior" who got 3rd on Skiis!

Junior at the first few meters of his run

All in all it was a cool, but massive exhausting day :-) now I have some days to prepair for the Nendaz 3 star qualifier in Nendaz, which will be next weekend...