Shredding POW in Austria

I have never really been anywhere where snowboarding was great (NC, Missouri, and local hills in Germany) until I went to Austria. I went with a bunch of officers from my Battalion (Jose, Joe, Randy, Takashia, Jason and his girlfriend Nicole, Kim, and Jennifer). It was through an Outdoor Recreation Center trip that we got transportation, lodging, breakfast, and dinner for $299. The only other expenses were lift tickets and lunches. All in all, a great deal for snowboarding for three days in the Alps. We went up and down many mountains but were based out of Flachauwinkl, Austria. We snowboarded over five different mountains if I remember correctly because you could go up one side, snowboard down the other, then take a lift up the next mountain. Our lift passes kept track of our distances covered and I snowboarded over 83 km with 16,419 m of vertical descent and rode up 44 chair lifts.

I checked my mail Friday morning before getting on the bus and sure enough there was a Smith helmet from Mama G and Oakley goggles from Brian. Thanks!

Rainbow in the valley the first morning. The first day was so perfect with not a cloud in the sky. It actually was pretty warm up there.


Jerome and I can't wait to hit the slopes


Admiring the view


So much POW (powder) to be shredded



With the Alps all around me I couldn't help but have a stupid grin on my face


Hanging out with the green monster man that saw us wreck so many times on the rails at the top of the mountain.


An idea I had for a picture. Tried to make it look like the board was hovering above me. Wasn't sure if it was gonna turn out good and the board nearly landed on my head. But not bad for the first try.


Having lunch with the crew.


Said crew...from left to right (Nicole, Jerome, Joe, Jason, Kim, myself)


Enjoying ourselves after dinner at the lodge (me, Joe, Randy, Hammer, and Jason)


The second and third days were overcast but that was because it was dumping fresh POW all over the mountain. While there was white out conditions some of the time, the powder was great.

Jerome brought a waterproof video camera that was very durable so we could tape each other riding. Joe was skiing and volunteered to tape us, mostly because he got to see me, Jerome, and Jason crash so much.


I had never really liked snowboarding that much until I took this trip. Now I think about it a lot like I do with surfing, wakeboarding, and riding motorcycles. I hope I get the chance to do some more this winter although I still hate the cold and can't wait for it to get warm.