Winter is around the corner …

… and all the glaciers are having their park openings. Same procedure every year. Last weekend the “Zoo”, up at the Stubaier Glacier, was opening its doors and it´s looking rad as always. Even though all the glaciers had a really hard time over the summer and are clearly missing more snow than ever before, the park up there was in perfect shape.

Going up the mountain on Saturday morning, we could already see that the mountain was dry and icy. When we arrived all the way on top, just above the park, we had to walk out of the station instead of riding down. Then finally, touching the first snow again! A super narrow path of snow brought us from the gondola station, through the rocky scenery, straight into the park. We had a few warm up runs in the nice looking rail park, while waiting for the sun to appear. The first few days up on the mountain after the summer are the best, because you get to meet all your shred buddies and friends you haven’t had the chance to see (or just didn’t wanna see) over the warm season.

Finally the sun came out and we moved the party over to the pro line. Three perfectly shaped jumps and a few rail features were waiting for us. Casual “Stubai Zoo”, with slushy landings and no impact at all. Nicki took the opportunity to shoot some really dope action and lifestyle pictures, while I slowly got used to jumping big kickers again. The first few days on snow after the summer break are always exhausting, so we decided to go down to the middle station restaurant to have Nicki´s favourite Austrian meal: a Wiener Schnitzel with French fries. Ein Guete!

After we came back up in the park, the jumps were even more slushy and I shredded the pro line the rest of the day while Nicki was running around shooting random people.
Coming down the mountain, we stopped by the new Moreboards shop in Neustift, to get a well-deserved beer … or two 😉
Super tired and a little drunk, we made it back to the hotel and enjoyed some well-deserved chill time, before hitting some more bottles. Finally, we got ready and headed to the party at the Dorfpub. DJ Montaro played some awesome tracks (or so I remembered) to get the crowd on fire, everyone got wasted … you know… the usual!

Sunday, last day of the “Stubai-Premiere”. Waking up with a huuuge hangover, luckily sneaking a little breakfast in our painful stomach before the buffet closed and then drove up to the glacier for the second day. The weather was not treating us well, which felt as if it were a punishment for our late night. Nevertheless, we could all agree that the glacier absolutely needed some snow and Mother Nature was there to provide it. So, we kept shredding around a little in the rail park and checked out the rest of the ski area, before slowly heading back home with good memories of the well-organized and fun opening at the “Stubai Zoo”.

Cheers,
Sebi & Nicki

Pictures: Nicki Antognini
Words: Sebi Geiger
Location: Stubai, Austria
Thanks to: The team organising the Stubai Premiere, Marcel and Jules