Summer blues (Euro Season 1415 recap)

Every summer there is this one point when you start missing winter and you feel like re-watching your pics, videos and whatever from the last winter. Again and again. And after a lot of wine you come up with this brand new idea of a season recap.

Winter 1415 started a bit weird. Went on a bike+hike trip to Morocco, Africa. Its a quite common thing for ski touring people to do that in winter and hope for the famous African corn. Most people i know who tried with skis ended up in a pretty dry landscape with not much snow. Somehow we found some perfect 5***** corn in September. Maybe we should rethink about what equipment to take to which place.
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...s_MSC_2049.jpg

http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...s_MSC_1989.jpg

Back home the average no-snow-but-still-stoked early season started
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...11-700x524.jpg

http://www.mariusschwager.de/wp-cont...r_SDIM1101.jpg

http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...141014_020.jpg

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things started to look pretty decent in November
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...s_MSC_3566.jpg

tyrolean tourism industry starting its engines
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...141023_006.jpg

bird is not impressed by anything
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...s_MSC_3564.jpg

Snow stopped falling and temperatures stayed high. December seems to become my favourite month for biking
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...204_143534.jpg

http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...204_151831.jpg

actually the resort renamed this slope as "freeride slope". wondered if there is a correlation with the lack of snow using the term "freeride" for a prepared slope.
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...219_135358.jpg

there is one big advantage living in the heart of the alps: 2h of driving and you find a totally different snowpack.
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...s_MSC_4186.jpg

snow was quite good looking, but the base was one of the trickiest in the last decades. dozens of people - including some friends and neighboors - got into avalanches, researchers were afraid of a new avalanche victims record. so i stayed basically in the resorts. which still is fun.
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...s_MSC_4319.jpg

the old year had its fun moments (FB picture)
https://scontent-vie1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...cb&oe=563CBB40

and the new year started with some nice morning light.
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...s_MSC_4519.jpg

snowpack stayed still below average and with bad stability. Did you know that January is the new summer?
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...223_142151.jpg

had some icecream
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/..._innsbruck.jpg

and things started to become some kind of normal. avy danger was still high and risk management told us to stay on the usually tracked out runs. like at Arlberg
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...s_MSC_5286.jpg

felt like someone is following me, klar maybe?
https://vimeo.com/121171188

got tired of skiing the same ressort laps and went to Sicily to ski on Etna. Realized that black snow is skiable, but makes everything rusty.
http://www.mariusschwager.de/wp-cont...r_MSC_6455.jpg

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did a lot of lifestyle pictures while drinking coffee with freak. Klar was quite impressed by our lifestyle-blogger and instagram attitude.
http://www.mariusschwager.de/wp-cont...r_SDIM0121.jpg

Did you know that the coffee in the Balkans is tasty? It is, and its only 50 Eurocent! Time to go there.
This is how your car (named "Elfriede") looks like after the not so average treatment at Kosovarian-Macedonian customs. Fortunately this happend after we were not allowed to pass from Kosovo to Serbia directly and had to take this 5h detour. We still managed to smuggle 0,5l of Kosovarian alcohol! HA!
http://www.mariusschwager.de/wp-cont...317_082430.jpg

Getting your ID and quite some gear out of your german car stolen in Bosnia doesnt make things easier at the balkan boarders. Time for a selfie i guess.
http://www.mariusschwager.de/wp-cont...316_132345.jpg

yep, mountains are interesting over there. why do bindings always break when its the most fun?
http://www.mariusschwager.de/wp-cont...315_120124.jpg

Back home and realized it sometimes sucks beeing the photoguy, sitting at the lift station (top left in the video) and waiting for your friends skiing untouched powder in Vorarlberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_WzNzkssWY

http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...s_MSC_5632.jpg

http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...MSC_5296-2.jpg

and Hochfügen
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and elsewhere
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variable conditions in Bella Italia (for naked skiers click here)
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...328_132030.jpg

got invited to a photo competition in San Martino in Italy. People told me they also have good coffee over there. Tobi rushing to get his sunset coffee just in time.
http://www.mariusschwager.de/wp-cont..._6829_edit.jpg

do you get bonus-points when seeing your appartement from winter camping?
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...s_MSC_8316.jpg

eventually i did not took my camera in the bag for skitouring. Freak says i did quite well as tumbling skitouring model
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...8596085213.jpg

Kyle Miller seems to like Tyrol
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...409_121709.jpg

spring was kinda limited for myself. snowpack and depth didnt really catch my interest. especially the steeper stuff was not really in condition, but still found some fun laps around the resorts
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/....Anton_010.jpg

One of the last episodes of each winter seems to be the internet-famous Longboardday.
https://vimeo.com/128239242

http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...04/MG_0163.jpg

After some more complaining about no-steep-skiing conditions its still summer
http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...s_DSC_4065.jpg

note: sorry for engrish, photos with a dslr and smartphone. links to german speaken blogs.

Well done. I'll be there to annoy freak and attend the Ernest Hemingway drinking festival in Schruns in late January if all goes as planned.

Love the photos. Ah... I gotta get out there!

Ah those early season stubai days, what would we do without them? the bw heavy on the contrast racer has bad form!

@buster: i thought this drinking festival is every day in those austrian valleys...

@klar: mh. without the early season days? i think mor biking or running. or drinking.

i will do my very best to shoot other people in better form the next days, if you wouldnt mind. we might need some racing equipment!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marius

@buster: i thought this drinking festival is every day in those austrian valleys...

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Well, I don't know about that, but I'm batting 1000 with freak.

Anyway, I should be there (Montafon if the snow is good) around the end of January and it would be nice to ski with you k00ks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by klar

Ah those early season stubai days, what would we do without them? the bw heavy on the contrast racer has bad form!

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I think there's something wrong with me: I'm sat in Bali, and awesome at it is, I'm looking forward to getting back to AT in September to scratch some Stubai ice....

Buster - I'll be in Schruns again this winter, so gimme a shout if/when you come!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ClarkleberryFinn

Buster - I'll be in Schruns again this winter, so gimme a shout if/when you come!

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Cool! Check your pm.

This one really shouldn't be left out:

http://www.powderplus.de/wp-content/...s_MSC_8640.jpg

hey marius you might know that i have the whole season to ski (another 10 months of sabbatical...) being sponsored by the LBV - Baden Württemberg, so if you are up to some mischief give me a call. It's been ten years since the glorious winter of 05/06 lets ski together again. I can ski blue runs now!

nice sponsoring! where can one apply? do we get a skiarea for ourselves with noone else around? i still have this allergy to people from time to time and that would help ;)

Good stoke and awesome photos, missed them first time around.

Carry on carrying on.