Are You Living It?

After 39 hours of wheeling luggage and heavy ski bags through two planes, one city bus, one train and three countries, we finally arrived in Schruns Austria.  Under a cloud of rain in the valley we hoped for new snow up high.  The city of Schruns is like any mountain town in the world, small and filled with warm people. Within our first hour in the town an Austrian man named Clouse saw us lumbering up a hill with all of our gear, and offered us a ride to our guest house for the week. Something I though would never happen back in the states, a stranger offering a ride.  But this is Austria. 

                Even with the jet lag we both were feeling, Chris and I rose early the following morning. After a quick breakfast of hard boiled eggs, meat and cheese, we were off to Silvertta Nova, a ski resort to the north and the second stop on the world freeride qualifying tour.  Silvertta Nova is like many resorts in Europe with a cable car that starts in the valley and carries skiers up 5000 feet into the mountains. After thirty minutes of battling Austrian women, men and children we were on the cable car heading up.  

In Europe everything has it’s place and order, the trains are never late, the streets are clean, but the ski lift lines are absolute chaos.  You have to push to the front, with aggression; otherwise you will never get on the lift. If you gave an inch someone would take it from you. It was crazy! Funny thing about skiing in Europe, all of the skis I saw were little carving skis, or race skis.  In the lift lines people would look at us and our big skis as if we were from another planet. We were asked daily “what are these for” “why so fat and long” I guess it’s all about the carve turn in Austria. That’s why the powder will stay for days after the storm; everyone just goes and carves up the groomers. It’s awesome for us powder hounds!

I spent most of the day at Silvartta Nova looking through binoculars at the following day’s venue. Staring up at it, it looked like it was a large bowl, with many features at the bottom like huge cliffs.  Everything appeared to be skiable and I felt ready to go, but then again I was looking at it from a mile away.  I later learned that the cliffs that looked so minuscule from a distance were massive.  In Europe the ski resorts don’t have the liability issues like the ones in the states, so if you want to ski that triple cliff 50 degree slope above the lodge, well go for it.

Still a little jet lagged, I had to be at the venue early the next morning. Again I ate a hard boiled egg, some deli meats and cheese, it was surely starting to feel like ground hogs day, the 80’s movie where everyday was the same. Rudy our host at the guest house, dropped Chris and I off again at Silverta Nova, but today the crowd was a little different, there were about five different languages I could hear. Everyone had big mountain skis, helmets, and bright colored outfits, these were “freerider’s” as the Europeans like to call it. The lift lines were still the same, the weak were pushed out of the way and the battle to get on the cable car first continued.

From the cable car I skied down to the judges tent, and began to gaze up at this enormous venue. It looked to be about two thousand feet, the biggest venue I have ever competed in.  Everything grew in size, the cliffs were much larger and we were still a half mile away. After a quick look, it was time to start heading for the start. To get to the top of the venue it was about an hour hike from the highest lift.  I hiked with my fellow freeriders, sweating, and post holing our way for an hour. We all finally reached the top; it was much steeper and rolled off, so everything I looked at from the bottom was out of site. I was now left only with a black and white copy of the event and what I could barely remember.

This comp is the real deal I thought to myself and just then, a young Frenchmen skier cut the slope below me and whoof, the whole face went, causing a class two or three slide. Over the next ten skiers there were numerous amounts of avalanches. 

As I was given the count down, the song Colossal by Wolfmother on my Ipod was tuned out and I became very focused on my descent ahead.  I pushed out of the start and thoughts of  where to enter the venue flashed through my mind, I didn’t have much time to look but soon found a chute, and let go, I went from 10 to 30 mph in a mater of seconds, rocks and avalanche debris was shooting by my fast pace. Before I could even think about what I just did I came up onto my second technical section, I quickly changed my mind and opted for a alternative route, but to my surprise it was even more technical then what I had planned on skiing down from the day before.  

In this tight near vertical chute, I became very focused on getting out of there safely.  My mind was running a thousand miles an hour, it was telling me to stop and get out of there, but that wasn’t a option it was to steep, the only way out was down. After a quick glace at what was below me, I found a sliver of snow that I could get out to and then air into the chute below. A quick move onto the silver of snow, then I was air born then landing in the soft snow of the chute, quick  acceleration through the chute, which opened up to the face below, and I was out at the bottom of my run. A few more turns and I crossed under the finish banner. 

Later in the day after watching the rest of the event, I felt like I would made the days cut, when the results came out, I listened and to my dismay, I did not to hear my name in the top eight. I was pretty bummed, I felt like my run was very strong, and so did many of my competitors who told me I was “robbed”. 

Chris and I skied down the mountain to the base area, where we treated ourselves to a big cold beer as we waited for the bus to take us down valley.  That evening we walked the streets to dinner and stopped by the world freeride event center to look at the official results.  To my disappointment I found that I was 10^th missing the days cut, by 2, and only .4 points out.  I asked the organizers if they planned on adding more spots, but after they spoke together in French, the answer was “no”. 

              Over the next three days Chris and I explored the surrounding resorts in the valley, still finding fresh powder five days after the storm!!  On the last day we skied the highest resort in the valley, and after a short hour hike I was standing on top of a steep face, with Chris shooting video from the opposite ridge.  I pushed into the line ripping some of the sweetest turns powder turns Ive ever experienced. That moment and those turns totally justifying all of the hours of travel. It would have been great to have made the cut in the Open, but 10^th out of 70 of the best skiers in the world isn’t half bad!!!   I will surely be back to Schruns next year.  

by: Forrest Coots