i am sitting here on moscow airport with mitch tolderer and eric themel on the way home from the 2009 freeride world tour event number one and a week full of riding in russia.

 krasnaja poliana is a little ski resort near sochi with not only great mountains but also one of the longest and oldest row of chairlifts in the world. it takes about 50 minutes to go from the parking lot to the top at 2.300 m, from where you can see the black sea! as a warmup we got a meter of fresh pow, so the riding on monday and tuesday before the contest was siiiiick. steep treeruns all day long made for tired legs at night.

we had two runs this year. day one happened on wednesday and was pretty short for me: after really good riding at the top part, a speedy straightline half way down the face sent me right into some massive cartwheels. here a pic of the couloir i rode:

the result of the crash were a 13th place plus a massive crack in my self confidence )-:

the whole face, mellow but nice:

so when day two of the comp was due yesterday, i had nothing to lose and was really relaxed. i got into a good riding flow and after a three of a windlip near the top, a few nice drops and jumps plus a backflip towards the end of the run i managed to stay ahead of the crowd and won day two!

i improved from13th to at least 6th place overall which is not what i had hoped for, but at least i know i can still win if i keep it together. win some lose some (-;

but i was happy for sure!

the others from team austria?

eric themel finished 4th at his contest comeback after winning day 1, max zipser 8th, mitch tölderer 10th and dani regensburger 12th, while matthias haunholder on skis came to a strong 7th overall.

cyril neri won the sowboarders overall ahead of xavier delerue, who was a bit into partying that night.....

there is a monthlong break before the next freeride world tour stop in squaw valley, usa at the end of february. for me it`s time now for a few days at home, followed by some freeride-guiding in st. anton before the big mountain comps in fieberbrunn and engadin happen, followed by the nissan outdoor games in interlaken.

flo