The last week in January signalled the time to start my job as head judge touring with The North Face Ski Challenge.

First of our international qualifiers took us to Flachauwinkl in Austria which is a resort in the Austrian Tyrol close to Salzburg. Another place it is close to is Shladmin and the night of our arrival coincided with the famous World Cup slalom night race which some of you may have seen on Ski Sunday. 50,000 people mostly Austrian and mostly drunk having the time of their life’s cheering on their skiing heroes.

To make the atmosphere even more intense the Austrians were first and second after the first run so were last to ski and eventually finished first and third, the reaction from the crowd was akin to being at a cup final at Wembley a truly incredible experience.
 

Back in Flachauwinkl the day after we did a quick tour of the Absolute Snow Park and surrounding areas to check out where we were going to stage the two days of competition. If you’re into freestyle (ski or snowboard) and in the area make sure you check out the Absolute Park it’s well worth it.

The Absolute Park staff were brilliant people to work with and went out of there way to help us put on an excellent slopestyle, building extra kickers and installing additional rails.

It had been snowing all day during the slopestyle and continued through the night so on freeride day we had 40cm of fresh light powder to play in.

After an avalanche safety talk and an Arva test we hit the slopes with three groups skiing with and receiving coaching from the judges. The kids then had a freeride run in the afternoon, which was scored. The two days scores were then added together to find the overall winners in each of the gender and age categories.
Check out the link for more details: http://eu.thenorthface.com/skichallenge/

After Flachauwinkl it was back to Chatel to make sure my wife Laura still knew I was alive, recharge the batteries and of course get some turns in with my friends in the freshly fallen powder.

Don’t forget to check out the Olympics, traditional disciplines like downhill and slalom still have a lot to offer this sport of ours.

See you soon

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The big chief gave me a call

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