Now I’m finally done with my this season’s competing and the last one in Riksgränsen was just a great end for my season, the fifth victory there for me and on the top of that, I got the highest scores of all the competitors, jiihaa!

As addition to that I even tried some alpine skiing for the first time in more than ten years…

Lots of rain, for sure, but still the funniest riding ever!

photo by: Mattias Johansson

As the conditions were quite lousy: rain and fog, we only managed to have two competition runs, instead of four. And only one run on the alpine side. Nevertheless, the actual riding was great fun. The snow was perfect for some nice turns and jumps, I had a nice 360 in each of my three runs and did my lines as I planned them. Of course I could have done more challenging line on the alpine category (as I planned on the following runs, which were unfortunately cancelled), but I am quite happy that I did my lines as I wanted to and most important, had great fun skiing. Next year I hope that I get some more alpine skiing days before the competition, more than three, like this year..  and then the goal is to win the both categories, hehee!

photo by: Mattias Johansson

photo by: Mattias Johansson

photo by: Mattias Johansson

photo by: Mattias Johansson

photo by: Mattias Johansson

I had a quick trip to Finland for one more Battery event. The Battery UpHill Jam in Levi.

This was the second edition of this event and the set-up was pretty much the same than last year: the speed is taken with the Battery Catapult and then you have a nice step-up kicker. This year the landing was made some bigger and nicer than last year, hoping to give some extra will for the riders to try even more and to go even crazier (last year almost all the riders tried different double flips and more…).

We had lots of fun hitting this kicker, but unfortunately many of the riders had some problems with the speed (including me), so we didn’t see super spectacular attempts this time, other than the snowboard winner, Matti Kinnunen, who did a great double rodeo.

Matti getting ready to go…

This year the ski winner was my team mate, Matti Räty, who proved the judges once more with great style.

I got a special price, again. This time the judges liked one of my attempts to try a 900.

The price was nice: Free flights provided by: Blue 1.

I am now done with my last Freeride-World-Qualifier-Tour-race for this season, the Nendaz Freeride.

For me the race didn’t go right as planned, but I should still be quite happy: Besides the regular freeride competition they also delivered a price for the best freestyle action for men and for women.

I did a nice cliff jump with a 360 in the upper part of the face and this trick gave me the price, a nice wrist watch from Dubey & Schaldenbrand. Value 10000 chf : )

My actual run was a miss for me. I chose a poor line, that was very difficult to ski with good fluidity and besides to that I crashed a bit after my last cliff jump. I guess I was just too tired on my legs… Anyway, after seeing most of the runs I know that with a smart line chose, on a good day, I could make it the top tree or even win  ; )

The competition face in Nendaz.

After all, I’m very very happy how I did in The FWQ -tour this season.

This was the first year for me to compete on this Tour, now I did 4 events and was on the podium on each competition in some way:

Flaine: 3rd (won the qualifications)

EngadinSnow: 7th (won the telemark class)

Mystic Freeride: 2nd

Nendaz: 18th (won the price for the best freestyle action and made it 2nd at the qualifications)

..even though I didn’t win any competition yet, I still won against around 100 alpineskiers on my telemarks, did some decent freestyle performance and got a HUGE urge to win more in the future.

Jiiiiiihaa, my best result so far. 2nd!

Well, I have to say that I’m quite happy. Just made it second in the Mystic Experience on my telemarks among more than 60 alpine skiers…

The top four in the Monte Rosa Mystic Experience.

It’s perfect to be back home in Andermatt, with my family and friends.

Life is the best.

In Sweden they know how to make the life sweet:

On the way back home from another tour in the mountains.

What can you say. The competition run in Engadin is long, super rocky, super tiring – but so fun at the same time… I think it’s one of the absolute best freeride competition venues. The snow conditions were very varying and I found it extremely tough to ski it down all the way without stopping and in the end I fell just before the goal line after a nice cliff with a good landing. But then my legs just said no… What can you say, more gym maybe.

Anyway, I’m super happy for my skiing. I chose pretty exposed start for my line, made it well, did some decent cliffs, had ok fluidity, made it 7^th among around 20 alpine skiers and won the telemark class, again!

Let the party go on…

The fantastic EngadinSnow-team, the DJ that made my night and our lovely Host.

The day after:

We needed to go to a garage…

On the way back home we did a trip to IKEA and saw this on the parking lot. The Swiss people have a special, I would say right forward, way of marketing…

Well, I am quite happy, my results: 1st Qualifications, 3rd Finals!

I just won about fifty alpine skiers in the qualifications on my telemark skis and on the Finals I was third…

It got quite cold up there but the sun came back for sure… Here you see Wille Lindberg and his great looks.

The competitions face:

We had some good time to enjoy the great conditions in Flaine:

…the Snow was just great…

French style, snails – of course..

My first competition for this season, Flaine Freeride, will be soon.

We came here to Flaine with my good friend Christian pretty late last night, thanks to a heavy snowfall all the way from Martigny. Our first impression of this place was quite special actually.

First you drive a serpentine road just for ever. Then you come to some kind of a concrete paradise resort, with just concrete and more concrete.

When the daylight showed us how Flaine was as a resort, I got quite impressed. I’ve never seen anything like that before, neither… Just huge concrete blocks, which were just ugly in a way, but everything around was so well in style with, so together the whole place was pretty beautiful…

The whole everything gave me nostalgic “Thunderbirds are go…” -vibes:

This lift is just so much James Bond for me…

I heard as well that there is a large sculpture made by Picasso in the middle of village (and I’m sorry that I missed it) and that Flaine is considered as a great piece of architecture from the 60’s developed by Eric Boissonnas.

These happy lovers are a good proof that the day was great!

Martin Vabel enjoys the snow.