Anyone who has been in the Zillertal to join a weekend in Hintertux will reassure us: This has been one of the most successful season openings ever! Already on Saturday the weather couldn't have been any better - blue skies and friendly temperatures for all the invited media from all over Europe, an of course all the 500 snowboarders in the park were all happy bunnies too. The park - consisting of a mini kicker line with 4 jumps, a fat corner, a big double kicker combo and a handful of rails - is still in damn good shape! Word up to Wille Kaufmann, legendary park shaper (check betterparks.at) and to the Hintertux lift company for such a good park! Only the pipe is still lacking a bit of shape, which will be finished off in near future. In the park we could watch loads of riders going off, like the local boys Rudi and Chris Kröll, Wolle Nyvelt, Steve Gruber, but also rippers like Marko Feichtner (AUT), Lars Ã-sterle (GER), Bernd Mandlberger (AUT), Jan Zajic (CZ), Michael Ligoki (POL), Conny Bleicher (GER), Silli Schlereth (GER), Carla Reinhard (SUI), Marko Grilc (SLO) to name a few. Also a big bunch of skiers showed up in the park, we could spot Danu Michel with his Swiss Atomic/Salomon road trip crew. Vibes were damn good in the park, everyone was enjoying themselves with no contest pressure whatsoever, just getting the first tricks laid down. At the end of the day, due to the snow which had fallen in the previous weeks, people could even shred down to the Fernerhaus, before getting on the gondola with a big smile on the face.
On Saturday night everyone was gagging for the Hot-Zone.tv video premier night at the bus garage of Christophorus Reisen, just 2km out of Mayrhofen. A venue consisting of three different bars, a chill corner, a bbq place and a not so big screen had been organized by the three leading snowboard shops in Zillertal: The Seeker (Mayrhofen), Insider (Lanersbach) and hot-zone.tv (Gerlos). Also some sponsors helped out the motivated crew - thanx to Analog, Gravis and Tuxertal. Right at the start the 'Eklatant DJ Team' rocked the turntables, before some good old Austrian hiphop combo showed up - Mundpropaganda. The party place was filling up with around 600 shredders to see the world premiere of Homeless, a snowboard movie by Gipsy Productions. At 11 pm Muck Müller grabbed the mic and put out some big thanx to the weather gods, to Zissy and Onda to host a party once more and to the big crowd for showing up. Then he called movie mastermind Daniel 'Naisi' Kudernatsch up on stage to present the riders of his movie: Woidl Fanninger, Chris Kröll, Migl Putz, Rudi Kröll, Stefan Gruber, Friedl Kolar, Michi Bacher, Armin Staud, Bernd Mandlberger, Seppi Scholler and Klausi Hofmeister. People were utterly stoked on the movie, which they expressed in the quantity of drunken alcohol afterwards. So make sure you go to the shop and buy a copy of Homeless, if you are an Austrian shredder, it is a must! As just mentioned, the party was going crazy and Steve Gruber was the first one to step up on stage to show his dancing skills to Mundpropaganda as well as to the crowd. But the musical firework was not over yet, there was still another damn good act to come - DJ Chrome! He managed to get the people crawl out of the chill corner to shake their booties, until the party had to be stopped at 4.30 am, because the Security guys were starting to fall asleep.
Sunday was a blue bird again, which everyone already knew the night before. Pretty much every snowboarder in town had a major hangover but that fact didn't hold anyone from having another sick day on Hintertux glacier (some of them literally). Around 600 shredders hit the park as a hangover cure, which once again shows what a damn strong species snowboarders are... Many stayed a couple of days longer - no wonder, where else can you find a good shaped park like this in middle Europe at the moment?
Link: www.hot-zone.tv