I love it when I get to go back to Europe and shoot with Euro snowboarders, even more when I get to travel with my good friend Vanessa Andrieux. I showed up in Bad Gastein (Austria) for the MBM Session. The concept of the week is about 10+ photographers show up with some riders and each crew tries to get better shots than the rest, on the same days and on the same mountain.

My team was composed of Gulli (Gudmundsson), fellow shredder from Iceland, and myself, with Vanessa as team captain. We were all staying in the same huge 19^th century hotel where we all hung out after the shred, it was super fun and felt like a big summer camp!

Bad Gastein is an old-fashioned, luxurious natural hot springs resort with an impressive waterfall right in the center of town and a beautiful view over the valley. Most of the buildings were built in the late 19^th century, they are tall and impressive. I was expecting to run into Empress Sissi in the streets the whole time I was there, or hearing Schubert playing piano.

The snow conditions were really bad when we got there! The slopes were covered with mud, ice and rocks... There was absolutely no snow left around, and it started raining! But we got lucky, as the rain transformed into snow! It dumped just enough to cover most of the off-piste and all the logs...and it turned out to be sick!!

The funny thing is that none of us had ridden in that resort before, so no one had any idea of where to find spots to shoot. The other surprise was that we weren’t able to drive out to the slopes in the morning because they hadn’t cleared the roads after the snowfall... We gave up after a good half-hour of pushing the car and were lucky enough to catch a ride with the Belgian crew, who had chains. We ended up shredding with them all day.

We jumped in the back and were lucky enough to spot a pretty cool pillow line right under the lift that no one had hit yet. Once off the lift we realized that the snow was knee-deep, and even though the pow was still a bit wet and heavy it turned out to be really fun and easy to shred! So we hit those pillows, got a couple shots and hit the bus back to the hotel as the fog had come up. Pretty good for a first day in bad weather, for sure!

That night we went up to typical Austrian restaurant, where we would come down with sleds after eating! The fun started right away with a general snowball fight! I could have stayed outside and kept doing that the whole night! That’s where we got to meet everyone else, riders from Finland, Switzlerland, Slovenia, Austria, France, Norway, Sweden, Belgium...and my friend Niels was there too! Niels is a kid from Geneva, he is awesome and super funny! It was so fun to get to hang with him and the two other kids in his crew!!

The ride down after dinner was super fun, with a small jump at the end! It was fun enough to go back up and do it again, even if it meant missing the cab and walking home...but of course with those kids the “walk” home turned into a snowball war through the whole village! Hihi! Love these!

The next day we woke up to bad weather and didn’t stress too much about being up there...but once in the gondola we realized that the sun was shining bright above the clouds! First we hit the same zone as the day before again, but there were so many crews already that we escaped to the next zone over, where we immediately spotted a really cool step-down over a cliff. It was a sweet, almost natural hit! It was very hot that day and the snow had transformed into spring slush, but it was still easy to land on. The spot worked out pretty well, even though the landing had been cooked by the time we were done with it!

When we got back everyone I crossed told me that my face was very red! That’s when I realized that the sunscreen I had been using that day was in fact after sun lotion!! I love it when you get a really tomato-red face.. it always helps being ridiculously good looking!!

On the third day we hiked about an hour up above the top of the last lift to find a cool kicker spot. It was so hot again and we were sweating big time! The snow was still good in the landing and the three of us shaped a humongous kicker in 2 hours. The monster was 2.20m tall and 2 boards wide! That’s probably because Vanessa was shaping! She always makes such HUGE blocks of snow! Anyways, when I hit the kicker for the first time the sun had been so hot already that my edge really sank into the kicker (which was way too soft because of the heat) and of course the landing was really bad by then. It was a bit sketchy to ride, and I tumbled a couple of times, but it worked out at the end.

We were especially tired that day after the hike and the shaping, and it was a pleasure to take my boots off and die on my bed! After that the weather wasn’t as good anymore and the avalanche danger was way too high for us to go hit the backcountry. So we took it easy and went partying! It was the GIRLS night out...because the 50 guys that were there just stayed in and went to bed, except for the 2 Swiss guys. So it was four of us in a pretty empty bar, with only Swedish tourists as party mates! The night started quietly, playing dice and turned out to be quite rock 'n' roll! I woke up the next day with a moustache drawn on my face and Vanessa’s graceful after-party voice! Luckily I had been drinking water that night, which made the 10-hour drive home much easier on the next day!

Thanks a lot to MBM for this super fun week and to Bad Gastein for inviting us to their beautiful resort! www.skigastein.com

And thanks to Vanessa for the pics on this blog and for taking me with her on this trip! www.vanessandrieux.com

WWW.ANNEFLOREMARXER.COM