Pre Games Parasnowboard Camp in Kitzbuhl Austria
- philip fell
- Mar 3
- 2 min read
What an exciting and fantastic way to kick off our Europe trip before heading to Cortina for the year's final races. The team decided to hold a freeride camp at Kitzbühel. If you haven't been to Kitzbühel, you should definitely add it to your list. The terrain is incredible. On a good powder day, you could spend days exploring powder stashes while connecting different ridge lines and even various villages. Plus, Kitzbühel hosts the largest and most prestigious downhill ski race of the season, the Hahnenkamm! Standing in the start gate and looking down at the course is intense, offering a whole new perspective on how challenging downhill skiing is. As a bonus, our Ikon passes worked seamlessly—just walk up to the lift and go. This was the second Ikon resort we've visited this month, with Steamboat Springs being the other. Although I've had many great trips and memories at Steamboat over the years, if given a choice, I'd choose Kitzbühel every time.
Besides the mountainous landscape, the town is fantastic, offering numerous excellent restaurants, shops, and everything you need within walking distance from the hotels and base lift facilities. We wanted to find some free time to visit a Michelin Star restaurant, but due to board prep and other commitments, Jon and I ended up dining at places that didn't require a blazer and a reservation.
After two days of freeriding at Kitz and discovering some of the best untracked slush fields I've ever experienced, we learned about a local Austrian Banked Slalom race being held at a resort about 30 minutes away. Everyone on the team was excited to check out this fun, slushy local event. I'm so glad we went! The lineup of participants in this "local" event was incredible. There was a gold medalist from the Cortina Games a few weeks ago, several former Olympic SBX riders, owners of boot companies, board builders from the top boards on the World Cup, National Team coaches, and Paralympic athletes all racing and having a great time. Local banked SL racing is among the most enjoyable events you can take part in. Everyone had a fantastic time and was happy we made the effort to attend the event.
We are now fully packed and en route to Cortina to deliver our equipment, establish our wax cabin, and complete check-in procedures for the upcoming major competitions that everyone has been preparing for over the past four years.
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