As you maybe now, we got finally good snow in Arlberg. I’ve been riding with friends and today Bas Elhorst and I made a beautiful tour, hiking through 60 cm of fresh powpow to ride a steep north face where I never saw tracks before. This day was good for the soul. Hiking to the top to ride fresh powder snow is another way to experience the mountains. No lifts, no noises, no stress to ride first tracks next to the pistes and you see details you never saw before.

You want a day for your soul? Hiking between 30 minutes and 3 hours to reach a top, with splitboard or tourski. Contact me, I’ll show you paradise in the mountains.  irianvh@yahoo.com or call: 0043 680 5587178

Last weekend I rode a comp in Kaprun, not my favourite face but anyway fun. Some nice airs, 360 but I did not found my entrance cliff into the steep part because I did not plane my line good enough. Next Weekend comp in Obergurgl, the face is steep with many rocks, I like it, I’ll plan good my line and I will go big!

Today there felt 60 cm of snow, remember how that looks like? Check Episode 3 and below some pics, where am I?

http://www.epictv.com/media/podcast/think-youve-ridden-awesome-powder-wait-till-you-see-what-these-guys-scored-%7C-by-fair-means-ep-3/274734?header_b=1

Today and yesterday we had bad snowconditions but anyway Mikeala Hollsten made a super shot, you will see it next year in a snowboard magazine. In the afternoon we ride the park, see below. If you foreward to 1:30:00 you can see my run in Nendaz if you did not see it jet. http://www.epictv.com/media/podcast/dodging-avalanches-to-score-insane-powder-runs-in-austria-%7C-by-fair-means-ep-2/274264?header_b=1

The qaulification for the contest where 2 runs, a very long day with 2 hours hiking in wet snow and more then 3 hours waiting on the mountain. Both my runs where (very) good, so next morning 7:00h. the lift to ride the final face.

There were two holes in the landing in my 2nd cliff of two riders who fell for me, so I made ​​a back slap. Beside that I’m happy with my run in difficult snow conditions. A bs 360 in the top part, a fast line with good size cliffs. I got 62 points, place 6 so the judge liked my run as well beside the backslap…. Sht it could have been a winner line when I had an earlier start number.

It was a difficult contest if you had not ridden him before (not as well organized): Yesterday 2 qualifiers with two one-hour hikes and less than 1 hour face inspection for two runs. No time for face inspection for the final face. Today, only half an hour face inspection for the final face. Normally you almost have a day time for a face check.

Thanks all my sponsors for making it possible for me to ride contests and show some freeride skills: Revert 95, Nitro, Mons Royal, Volcom, Douchebags, Mountain Hard Wear and Gloryfy.

Today I was riding two (very) good lines in the Qualifier run in Nendaz. Tomorrow you can see life the finals from about 10:00h. so check it out at the nendaz freeride fb or there website ! I’m ready to go big 😉

My guests and me enjoying the sunny days. Riding steep untracked couloirs in Südtirol (Italie) Tirol and Vorarlberg.

Last weekend I’ve been to the ski area Goldeck for judging a Dutch freeride competition for Poederbaas. Dutch beanie brand http://www.poederbaas.com/

Too bad it was foggy at the competition day and we could not start but the snow was very good so we went riding in the forest. Poederbaas organized photo shoots, great parties, a slackline, prices for everybody, and the whole atmosphere was stunning/super ‘gezellig’.

I have participated in many competitions but they have hardly been organized that well. Thanks for this amazing job to Poederbaas. I will be there next year again.

-Touring photo from my guests in Arlberg –nature photos from Goldeck and surrounding – action photos from Paul de Groot, Sebastiaan Vreeken, Jurriaan Morsink and me.      

Andorra is a good place. The people are very social and familiar. One of the local freeriders hurt himself, another died last summer in an avalanche in Argentinie. The freeride community talked about them and showed movies from the one who died and we visited the one in the hospital.

The competition face had two parts, a steeper upperpart and less steep down part. The top 5 snowboard men went to the finals. I’m good in steep technical and rocky faces, so my choice was to ride a technical line with a big double cliff in the top part. If it would work out, I would take two easy cliffs in the down part of the face. If the top part would not go as planned I had a second option in the down part to jump two nice big, but risk full cliffs.

 The top part went perfect so I chose the easy cliffs in the down part of the face. There were already some holes in the landing and I fell. I don’t really know why, it felt like falling while walking on a street. Shit happens… The final face was a nice long and steep face.

Here you see the comp face and my line in red, some photos of Barcelona we visited after the comp. Now I’m in Goldeck, south Austria, to judge a Dutch freeride competition from Poedbaas.

 The comp went not so good for me, it was not my face and not my day, I like more steep and technical faces. I made place 6. Anyway I’m still number 6 in the FWQ ranking with a 1^st, 2^nd in New Zealand and 3^rd place in St Moritz.  http://www.freerideworldtour.com/785.html

Mikaela got the 1^st place, congratulations Miki!!! Tomorrow we ride the next competition in Vallnord

The days after the comp I had the best photo shooting ever so far with photographer Alex Gosteli.Not the best wetter and snow conditions but he knows how to shoot freeride photos. I will write about it and show the photo in the next Snowboarder Mag. Now I show you some photos Mikaela made so you get a taste of what we where working on. The skier is Sasha Geist from Argentinie. We stay in a super nice Hostel with a view over an Andorra valley: https://www.facebook.com/albergbordajovell

Do you already follow my blog? When not press ‚Follow‘ in the ride corner of this page. I have over 38.000 viewers on my blogs in about two years, you are the motivation for me to write and post photos again.

Thursday Marcel, Mikaela and I flew to Barcelona, rented a car and drove to Andorra. On the way we visited Montserrat. Today, Saturday was competition day. But after we took the lift at 7am and hiked 1 hour a ridge in stormy wind conditions the comp got postponed to Monday. Andorra is the place for Alcohol, cigarettes, pots and pans.