As the season was drawing to a close and the temperatures were starting to rise I had already put my powderskis into the corner. After Japan there were a few more good days in Europe but it really was nothing above average. We went to Zauchensee a few times… cursed around Tirol touring Stubai, Dachstein yet one thing seemed apparent. The temprature curves. Climate change in it`s textbook version saw us coming in for a morning with lots of fresh and fluffy only to flee dropping tons of sluf and lots of small avalanches. All it all it was quite the opposite to the neck deep confidence we build up in Japan at the end of February. Then on a Wednesday in April my powder-sense started tingling again.
A massive stormfront was going to hit the western part of the Austrian alps around Serfaus/FISS and all the way to the Silvretta. I quickly called my Slovenians, most of them already firmly in early spring biking had all questioned the prediction. In the end I drove to Innsbruck alone. Over the years these last minute, I know what I am doing, gut instinct last minute decisions had proven to be good. I was rarely wrong and even if, only to a small negligible degree.
In Innsbruck it was not hard to find willing partners in crime. Magda and Raffi would be coming with me and also for the first time my buddy Jonas from the Blacksheepsports guys. I had wanted to go ride some pow with our pretty super-sport-student for the whole season but after he got injured it just did not work out before heading to Japan.
Eager to meet up with our FISS local and legend Pavli we headed off in the morning. When we arrived,it was snowing still. The total overcast did not provide good visability. We did our first run of the north side. It was looking really good. The snowpack that had fallen, a good 30-40 cm was more stable then we anticipated. The decision was easy. We would do Urgtal runs for the rest of the day.
You see on the north-side at FISS there is a long valley. If you hike up the ridge for a while and descend you can run a lot of different awesome lines in unracked pow. But Urgtal, as much paradise as it is can be is also s very dangerous palce. You see mother nature always reminds us of our place in the world. But for us at least on this Sunday it would be a great day. We did tons of chutes and trees, always walking the 15 minutes back to the cable car. Always smiling. It was what I would call a perfect end to a very logistically demanding but in the end satisfying season.
Unfortunately after the riding ended that day something shifted and I am happy that in the end all was well. While driving back to Ljubljana a over Salzburg I got into the most unbelievable of snowstorms I have ever encountered. There were 30 cm of fresh snow on the Autobahn and it was dumping like there is no tomorrow. Out of pure luck a ambulance was speeding next to me in the night at one point. I stuck to just follow its red rear lights and pedaled to the metal to make it over the 100 km of snowstorm. Ironically after passing the Karavanken tunnel and arriving in Slovenia there was a full moon shining.This snowstorm it seemed was only my purgatory for that perfect day.
Because the conditions were so great my friends Magda and Raffi stayed with Pauli to enjoy Monday as well. There was only one little problem. As it turned out the overcast I mentioned was the only thing keeping the snow pack stable.
On our perfect day I was annoying everyone to do a run on the other side of Urgtal, where we would have to hike for a good 30 minutes, but I gote vetoed by everyone. I had become a bit to powderhungry but still adhered to the vote. That as it turned out had been a good thing. Coz on Monday that whole mountain came down in one of the biggest avalanches in Tirol in recent history.
As I was sitting at the office working I got a call from my mom asking me if I was at Urgtal the day before. I said yes and immediately she told me that there had been a massive avalanche. My heart started to pound hard as I knew Magda and Raffi were still there. Immediately I called Madga… no answer.. then Raffi. Luckily he picked up and let me know that they had been away from the avalanche but saw the whole thing. At that time 2 Helicopters and 40 people were probing with them to make sure no one was buried still. In the end all was well and no one was hurt. But the season had ended with a bang. A big one. Mother nature reminded us all who is boss.
