After a short delay, we continue our coverage of the Kaunertal opening. Since we couldn’t ride the glaicer Park on Friday because of the immense amounts of snow, after all, half a meter in the Valley, and more than 70 cm on top, we were all eager in the morning to get up top. You could see the campers, and cars lining up in front of the toll station waiting to be let loose. Fortunately we could skip the line altogether 🙂
So finally we arrived on top. We almost couldn’t believe our eyes. So much snow in the middle of October. It was like January or even February and on top of that bluebird skies. People were all fired up and ready to go. Then came the surprise. Originally, I thought that we will be spending most of our time in the Park, maybe a little bag jumping, and some chilling in the sun. Making your first little round of the testival area, and after our first ride of the season, I had other plans.
You see, the greatest addition, to this year’s opening was the extensive ski and snowboard Testival, spearheaded by Blue Tomato. Since being bought by the Canadians,the Schladming based, primarily online retailer of ski, snowboard and skate gear, has been expanding exponentially. Opening shops in many major metropolitan cities in Germany and Austria, the latest addition one week prior, was a new shop in Innsbruck. For obvious marketing reasons, the opening was a perfect platform to say hi to its customers.
That of course was good news for us, as it is usually quite painful, to actually get a good hands-on experience with new gear, in all of its variety and combinations, the decision was easy, less Park and more powder. A retrospective, I think it somewhat ironic, as even while leaving, I left most of my powder gear, excluding my old trusted Czar ski at home. But I did take the new Quest boot I already wrote about with me 🙂
So while the crowd was cheering in the Park, the amateur free skiers and snowboarders were collecting their prizes at the rail contest, we were testing a lot of things in practice, that we saw at the ISPO. So quickly a test run was found, we put quite a few products through their paces. Next post quick reviews of the following products:
- Salomon Q115 188 with Guardian binding
- Scott Punisher 173
- ICELANTIC Gypsy 190 with Tyrolia AAA binding
- Salomon Rocker2 108 182 with Guardian Binding
- Guardian vs. Tyrola AAA practical switching test.
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The testival area felt like a little ISPO in the snow!