Mel's :-) Blog

Recap Fischer Teamweek and Junior Freeride Camp

meltirol — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:42:31 +0000

Oh man, sooooo many things happening around me at the moment But time is flying by and I’m soooo lazy with updating my blog Okay, trying to keep it up … But it’s just soooo good outside that the computer is offline quite often

Already to weeks ago the Fischer Family had a get-together at the Rudolfshütte/Weißsee Glacier… European Fischer Teamweek was on… From mid January until the 19th of Jan all the European Fischer riders got together for a meet&greet&shred…

Our first day couldn’t have been better! Fresh powder, bluebird, supermotivated riders shreddin’ together at the Weißsee… Accompanied by photographer Birgar Olsen and filmer Martin Sochor and Sean W. we also could get in some footage for a teamvideo, hopefully coming out soon… Tuesday brought another storm with some snowfall, so Steph, Oliver and me couldn’t do our planned tour… Instead we hit the trees and found some good skiing there… Wednesday was again an absolutely stunning day! Hardly any people in the backcountry, just us… Another film day was on, so not much skiing, checking lines, waiting for the camera to roll…

To give you a better impression here is a video from my point of view Enjoy watching!

As the weather forecast didn’t promise good weather anymore and I was quite done from so many days of skiing in the row and therefore wanted to rest my knee, I left the Rudolfshütte already Wednesday eve to recover and have two days off skiing… Great week, cool people, thanks to FISCHER and SANDY for making this happen!

And here some pics…

Fischer Teamrider Johannes Klotz...

Cameraman Martin Sochor, photographer Klaus Polzer, Fischer Teamrider Sandra Lahnsteiner

Neil Williman getting ready for his frontflip over a 10 meter cliff!!!! He is soooo crazy Ended up in a crash, blue eye and sore back... Get well soon Neil!!!!

Basti Huber sendin' it...

white face...

our film lines...

Mel...

Johannes...

Matthias Egger...

Dominic Hartmann...

yes, we skied this

Turning to the Junior Freeridecamp Weekend in the Axamer Lizum…

Last weekend (21./22.1.2012) we had our first Junior Freeridecamp stop in the Axamer Lizum! Michi Mayerhofer and myself were the coaches to shred the deep powder with 12 motivated young shredders… As it was dumping and we had avalanche danger warning level 4, we focused on searching with the avalanche beacons and rode powder within the boundary zone… This winter is extraordinary! So much snow – amazing! And also the snow pack is settled very good, great for us freeriders! Thanks to ORTOVOX for helping the kids out with shovels, beacons and probes!

searching station...

Wer suchet, der findet

our group with the coaches Michi Mayerhofer and Mel Presslaber...

On the second day we were pretty lucky as the weather turned out to be better than the weather forecast promised… We could ski some easy lines, the kids could jump off some cliffs and we had loads of fun in the snow!

my shred group...

ABS backpack in action...

The Junior Freeride Camps aim to motivated, young riders at the age level between 15-18 years old… Our focus is to give them a basic knowledge for riding safe in the backcountry. Always with a riding buddy and equipped with shovel, beacon, first-aid kid, probe and cell phone they learn to interprete the avalanche bulletin, learn where they get all the information about riding in the backcountry, etc… To get more info: www.freeridecamps.at

Have fun in the sun!

Mel:-)

Video updates…

meltirol — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:33:18 +0000

Some video’s from the past weeks Enjoy watching!

My ski sponsor Fischer is bringing out a new Freeride Binding!!!! wohooo!!! Looking forward to ride on it!!!

Powder Alert with friends in Hochfügen…

Us girls shredding massive powder at the Arlberg!!!! What a beautiful day!!!!

Some impressions from the Fischer Teamweek at the Weißsee Glacier…

Powder to the people…

meltirol — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:47:46 +0000

Austria is sinking in snow, well not all parts of Austria (Carinthia is still praying for snow…) but I’m lucky that I live at the right place at the moment Since I’ve been out shredding powder all the time, I’ve been really lazy with updating my blog… But instead of sitting inside, I’m really thankful that I’m healthy to spend my time outdoors with friends!

Instead of filling the page with words, here is a selection of the best pics of the past weeks…

Enjoy life and take care,

Mel:-)

Mel shreddin' the pillows...

die Lisa's...

Dani...

JB...

Mel...

in Powderhausen...

Mankei sendin' it...

Flat...

on the to-do-list...

Carmen...

at the Arlberg...

Carmen, Liz, Dani, Mel... What a day!!!!

Dani...

Mel & Liz... Hiking our lines...

Liz... pic by Mel:-)

Dani... pic by Mel:-)

Liz... pic by Mel:-)

what a day!!!!!

Newsupdate from Mel…

meltirol — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 18:35:23 +0000

The past weeks flew by and so many things have happened… Therefore I would like to give you an overview or let’s say, I have to put all my thoughts together again and write it down for me and you , otherwise I forget it and that wouldn’t be good …

First I would like to announce my new partnerships with Columbia Sportswear and Zanier Gloves!!!! Really happy about that!!!! Many thanks to Irina from Columbia!!!! Markus and Andrea from Zanier!!!!

As a semi-professional skier who is outdoors all winter (hopefully with no injuires this winter ), it’s awesome to have the back-up and support of highly quality products on the mountain!!!

Columbia Sportswear is, together with “The North Face”, the largest outdoor company in Northern America and is now highly motivated to push the European market. Together with three awesome skiers and mountain/ski-guides, Stephan Skrobar, Markus Neier and Horst Tatschl, I’m part of the product test team who helps developing the products… One of Columbia’s newest technologies is Omni-Heat and has already been awarded several times… Omni-Heat helps maintain warmth and prevent heat loss through reflective, electric, and insulated technologies, keeping you comfortable in cold weather. And it WORKS!!!! For further info visit their website: www.columbia.com

“ZANIER develops winter sports accessories in close cooperation with the consumer-to-be, with outstanding athletes. Their products have been developed and tested in the heart of the Dolomites – this makes them authentic and true.” As I’ve grown up in beautiful Eastern Tyrol, it’s a pleasure to work with a company that has it’s base in Lienz! Andrea, Markus and the whole Zanier family are a great inspiration and make the company so successful! For further info find more information on their website: www.zanier.com

At the same time I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Dominic, Carola, Lisa and Erich for the support over the past years from the company Ziener!!!!

Recently I’ve been shredding deep powder with my friends and we had so much fun!!!! Here is the video you have to look at!!!!

I love it because it bring’s in the impressions of this epic powder day

Merry Christmas by the way !!!!!

The days before I headed east with Matthias “Hauni” Haunholder, professional Freeskier and buddy… We had a catalogue shooting for Zanier and lots of fun at the Tauplitz ski area. The pictures will be awesome!!! I’m already looking forward for the new catalogue where the pictures will be published!!!! Here is just one “making of” picture with professional freeriders Eva Walkner, Tine Huber and Hauni…

...poor Hauni got covered in snow by Eva and Tine...

As it was dumping over night, Hauni and me stayed overnight with our friend, photographer Mirja Geh in Bad Ischl… We had another great powder day at the Tauplitz!!!! Thxxx Mi!!!!

Mi & Hauni...

Friday 16th to Sunday 18th of December…

Line Camp Hochfügen with Snowboard-Pro Flo Orley and Ski-Pro Matthias “Hauni” Haunholder

www.freeridecamps.at

Freeridecamps is now in it’s second year and the aim is to support young, talented riders… The Junior camps are for 15-18 year old shredders who love to ski in the backcountry and want to improve their knowledge in avalanche safety, technical skills and everything that comes with freeriding… The great thing about that is, the young kids are supported by the Austrian government, so the camps are for FREE!!!! I’m happy to be one of the coaches at the Junior Camps and therefore I was invited to be part of the Line Camp with Flo…

The Line Camp aims on contest riders who want to improve riding their lines and want to get on in Contest riding… At the first day the weather didn’t mean it that good with us but snow was on it’s way, so powder alert for the next day… For me Contests are not accurate anymore, I enjoy filming and shooting and my knee feels happy about that Anyway, I found a good line on Sunday, here is the video of the “Best of” Lines… Our cameraman Matze filmed the whole face, so all of us are little points So find us in the video …

Thanks to Matze Pristach and Flo Orley for organizing a great weekend!

The whole crew in Hochfügen...

What else have I been doing in December???? I finally finished my Bachelor thesis (thxxxx to Birgit who helped me reading through…:-)…) and apart from that I have been skiing, skiing, skiing…

our beautiful mountains!!!!!

shredding with Dani... Thxxxx Dani for the shot! After the snow came the rain and changed the snow surface...

Shreddin' with Flat and Max at the Seegrube...

...at Hafelekar, high above Innsbruck's roofs with Pia...

Wishing you all MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Enjoy the powder, Mel:-)

Winter mode…

meltirol — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:00:16 +0000

Beginning of December 2012… Where is the snow? Warm temperatures, a constant “High” above Austria, no snow on sight… Beautiful weather instead… No reason to complain! Okay, skiing at the glacier in icy conditions isn’t that much fun but biking or just being outdoors in nature is great too!!!! And we can’t change the weather anyway, so we have to accept it the way it is…

I had an awesome autumn, biked until the beginning of December with supermotivated, great people and had a very good preparation to get started for winter. My knee feels quite good in the snow, hardly any pain while skiing off-piste. Thanks to Phil from www.physiofit who is a great motivation to train with!!!! I’m training once a week with him, the rest of the week I’m training at the gym, at the University sports academy and at Physiotherapy Huber.

Seefeld 18th of November 2011. Have a look at the white stripe - is it necessary to make artificial snow that early??? Why can't we accept nature the way it is?

Clemens spotting Andrea in one of the "Spitzkehren"... She and he are great bikers!!! It's awesome to be on the mountain with them!!!!

View to Innsbruck - what a beautiful view! Aren't we lucky to live in that beautiful surrounding??? Don't forget that!!!

Biking with Freestyle queen Caja Schöpf

Skiing with friends in November... Liz, Carmen, Birgit & Mel on the photo (Mankei, Stefan and Tom) Great day, lots of fun!

Now it’s time to say goodbye summer, hello winter!!!! Looking forward to enjoy the winter outdoors, hopefully with no injuries Finally it snowed last week, at the Arlberg over 1 m fresh, still more to come here in Tyrol

7th and 8th of December Harry Putz, Manfred Pascher, Flo Orley and Friends organized the first Freeridefestival Innsbruck. It was a great get together of the local Freeride scene. Two awesome evenings with impressive freeride videos. My absolute Favourite:

Starring McFly, Björn Heregger, Max Zipser… Great riding by the guys, great filming by Hanno Mackowitz!!!!! A MUST SEE!!!!

On both evenings money was raised for a good purpose. At the first evening the benefits go to a social project in Eastern Africa, at the second evening money was raised for the Streetworkers in Innsbruck!

The Snowgirls Crew, Harry Putz, Bezi Freinademetz, Martin Freinademetz, Matthias Hauni Haunholder, Sandra Lahnsteiner, Mathias Bergmann, Mel...

Next day was a chilly skiing day with just girls… Girls who love to ride and who are strong skiers!!!! A lot of fun on the mountain!!!!

from left to right: Mel, Pia Widmesser, Lisa Horst, Lorraine Huber, Sandra Lahnsteiner

...no words, just awesome to be out with good friends ....

Yesterday we’ve been in Zürs for a photoshooting and we had really good conditions… Still found some powder!!! Arlberg is usually very crowded but not at that time of the year as there is still pre-season and winter has just started…

Arlberg... Always great to be there!!!!

Roman Kuss... Young, talented and supernice rider!!!!!

Amazing!!!!!

Winter? …not here yet, so still in biking mode…

meltirol — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:33:51 +0000

It’s nearly middle of November and no sign of snow yet… But as we can’t change the weather and have to accept it the way it is, I’m still out a lot, biking with friends So, I can’t complain and acctually NOBODY should complain!!!! This autumn has been AMAZING!!!! Like Indian summer – could it be better?

Have been riding pretty cool tours and checking out new trails. That’s always a challenge as you’ll never know how the trail is gonna be, even if you read the map and prepare very well… This happened to me and Fredy a couple of days ago… We wanted to check out a new trail… The map already showed us that it’s really gonna be a challenge – yes, it was! A bike & hike adventure with even climbing bits, with a beautiful scenery and the realization that: “If you never try, you will never know”…

I’m pretty sure that this trail hasn’t been biked a lot before, to steep and the upper part was hardly rideable, even for Fredy, who is a really great biker!!! We had to carry our bikes at least an hour on our back, had to traverse an amazing bit, with no falling zone included…

...the hike up...

Fredi in Action...

I won’t go into details WHERE we exactly have been – I guess a normal freeride biker would NEVER ever get the idea of biking down where we went We had to toss our bikes down for at about 500 hm’s until we finally got on some very flowy trails… So a great day on the bike again!

...the climbing section with the bike...

Mel in Action with a short rideable bit at the upper part of the tour...

Some other pics from different bike tours…

Carmen in Action... She's a really good biker!!!!

...Sunday with friends... What a great day!!!!

...beautiful autumn day on the bikes with Fredi & Carmen...

...girls afternoon @ Obernberger See... Petra, Rosa, Sabrina & Mel...

...another Bike & Hike Tour...

...wow!

Sabrina in Action...

Mel in Action...

Many thanks to ALL of my friends for sharing some beautiful moments together in the mountains!!!!

The next days will be AWESOME, so go out there and ENJOY the beautiful nature!!!!

All the best, Mel:-)

Skiing @ Mölltaler glacier…

meltirol — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:24:50 +0000

Technical training with the brits for a whole week… Perfect for getting back on the skis for me and the kids had soooo much fun which was great to see… I got the possibility to train the british juniors (10-11 year old kids) for their autumn camp… It’s quite amazing to see, how much effort the british people are making to get on in skiracing… In Austria it’s just so normal to train each weekend on the glacier and every day in winter… The british kids have a week of skiing now and they will be back on skis for Christmas… I guess we are just very lucky to live in the mountains!!!!

During the week we had all kinds of conditions… From very, very, very cold, to no visibility, to very windy, to perfect powder and finally to blue bird and sunshine… Technical skiing throughout the day, fitness training and tuning skis in the afternoons – that was the week… Fun but also quite challenging… And it was really cool to see sooooo many familiar faces ….

...the kiddies...

...stunning...

potential Freeride area...

@ Stubaier glacier…

meltirol — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:59:54 +0000

First time on skis since… Well, not soooo long ago… As it snowed quite a bit already and I had to go skiing before the training week with the brits I went to the Stubaier glacier… Perfect under the week as there are no crowds… I hate it when it’s sooooo crowded on the glacier…

Felt good to be back on skis and I’m really looking forward to the REAL Winter

Enjoy your day!!!!

on my FISCHER GS-skis and the NEW Fischer Watea boots love them!!!!

Downhillbiking in Fiss…

meltirol — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:51:57 +0000

Oh man, I’m quite behind with writing my blog entries But sooooo many things are happening in my life… It never gets boring and I just love it to be out in nature!!!!

Okay, well back two weeks… 16th of October, the only lifts that are still open – Fiss/Serfaus… And they are really open for bikers Good because it’s still quite hard here in Austria to get accepted in the mountains, on the hiking trails, with the bikes…

Link to Serfaus Homepage…

Actually friends should have accompanied me but one got ill, so I started by myself… Lots of hikers and paragliders took the advantage of the beautiful day and the only open lifts in the area… Without any strenuousness I got lifted up 1000 hm’s from the base of Fiss at 1436 m up with the Schönjochbahn to the top of the Fisser Joch at 2436 m. What a day! Sunshine, blue sky, this autumn is AWESOME!!!!!

Up at the Fisser Joch there was still quite some snow, as a few days ago it snowed down below 1000 m’s…

100 hm’s uphill before the downhill started… The Frommestrail is an official downhill trail in Fiss and it’s a nice, flowy trail with just an amazing view!!!! 1000 hm downhill …

beautiful mountain panorama...

For more infos about the Frommes Trail klick on the following Link…

Still some snow to bike over…

Back down at the Schönjochbahn, up again, to try out a different trail… Actually an unofficial one Down the Schadenstock… But as there were no people around it wasn’t a problem at all… Just the snow at the upper bit of the trail was a bit challenging, apart from that this trail is/was AWESOME!!!!!

A third downhill round until it was time to go back home again… What a beautiful day in the mountains!!!!!

Frommessee...

…on the road… Fischer, History of snow and biking with the girls…

meltirol — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:32:58 +0000

Friday, 14th October… Drove to Ried/OÖ to meet up with Sandy and Klaus Manhardt, our main supporter in terms of skimaterial. It’s great to have such support from the company – many thanks for that!

www.fischersports.com

Soon our Freeski-Homepage will be online – will keep you posted about that…

Happy to be on Watea Ski’s and on the Freeskiboot X120!!!!

Fischer Watea Skis 11/12 and Fischer Freerideboots

Later on that day, I met my friends Pia and Sandy in Salzburg to view the premiere “A History of snow”… A skimovie by Mathias “Hauni” Haunholder and Matthias Mayr, starring themselves in the film, Pia Widmesser, Sandra Lahnsteiner, Roman Kuss and Ueli Kestenholz… Cool film, with great skiaction!!! For more infos about the film visit their website: www.ahistoryofsnow.com

Nice evening with lots of familiar faces!!!!

Alard Faas (producer of the movie), Sandra Lahnsteiner (rider), Pia Widmesser (rider), Matthias Mayr (rider), Hauni (rider), little boy, Monika Fischbacher (Mountainpainter), die Hallander Jungs (Mountainpainter), Seb Maier (Mountainpainter and great skier)

TWe didn’t have a long night, as it was great to talk, talk, talk about projects for the winter and other stuff of course… But it was clear that we would spend the day outdoors… First it was planned to drive to Saalbach to go biking in the bikepark… But it came different and we stayed in Salzburg… Biked up to the Gaisberg 1287m from Elsbethen (close to Salzburg) where we had a stunning view over Salzburg… What a beautiful day!!!! Great to hang out with the girls!!!!

Watzmann in the back... What a day!

Sandy, Mel, Pia...

I love to bike