European Freeski Open in Laax
Due to the bad weather conditions the Slopestylefinals on Friday and the Halfpipefinals Saturday were canceled. Instead of the Slopestyle on Friday a Railjam took place in the valley. They had a nice stair setup with a Downbox, a Downrail and a Doublekinkbox. JF Houle won the men competition and Ashley Battersby was the best girl on the rails and boxes. K2 Teamrider Anna Seagal was on 6th position. Finish teamrider Antti Ollila has been the youngest rider, who qualified for semifinals, and was superhappy to compete at the railjam with so many famous riders.
http://www.downdays.eu/en/whitepaper/euro-open-day-3-01-de
http://www.laax.com/freeskiopen/
Seth Morrison is “Almost Live”
If you haven’t seen TGR’s “Almost Live” series you are missing out. In this episode Seth, Sage and Roner are at North Cascade Heli and ski ‘The Gash.’ -Enjoy
http://www.tetongravity.com/videos/Almost-Live-Episode3-North-Cascade-Heli-The-Gash-939551.htm
Park und Backcountry Camp by K2 & mountain-action, Krippenstein 2010
For the 4th time the Slopestyle and Freeride Camp organized by mountain-action and supported by K2 took place in the carnival vacation at the Krippenstein. Andi Neuhauser, founder and chief of mountain-action, was responsibility for the Backcountry and Chris Fischer´s Job was to coach the Kids in the Park and filming them. The weather couldn´t be better, we had 5 days sun, bluebird all time and a lot of powder and nice pillows, which could still be found after 5 days in the backcountry.
We started our first day with a nice powder kicker. The kids, which were between 11-15 years old, killed the session with a lot of back- and frontflips and 360er.
At the following day the Krippenstein Bergbahnen supported us with a snowcat. So we set up a nice roller and a straight rail, where they could work on their skills.
At Monday visited us Dani Schießl, who is K2 Teammanager of Europe and K2-Teamrider Lucas Mangold. They also enjoyed riding with us in the Backcountry and in the Park. Our freeride run contained a 20 minutes hike, but Toni our host transported our 14 pair of skis with his sled up to the top!
In the evening it was time for the legendary “Hüttenrally”. By a lot of funny and entertainment games, the kids could win pretty cool prices from K2.
Like every year there were also one afternoon, which main topic was about avalanches.
The kids got the possibility to search with LVS-Geräten. Then the guides hid the avalanche tranceivers with some beanis and t-shirts from K2, so the Kids were pretty motivated and they all gave their best!
I think we all can say, that we spend a super week together on the Krippenstein. The Kids had tons of fun and learnt a lot of useful things for the park and for the Backcountry.
Next year we will be there again, that´s for sure!
Don´t forget to sign up in time at mountain-action.de!
Cheers
Chris
K2 dominates the 1st day at the Austrian Freeski Open
Kids and Girls Comp went down today at the Austrian Freeski Open at the Kitzsteinhorn,
for K2, it couldn’t have been any better, Anna Segal won the Girls category, Antti Ollila from Finland won the Kids comp, Aj Heikkinen, as well from Finland, got 3rd.
Congratulations!
Sport Praxenthaler Touring Day + Show + Night Session
Sport Praxenthaler organized a Touring Test Day at Unternberg Ruhpolding (http://www.unternberg.de/), Germany. Lots of companies were there to get their stuff tested. Of course, Charlie and lots of K2 skis had to be there as well.
I was helping out with designing the jump, which went pretty good. The kicker was actually just planned for the Show, but as the kicker is pretty good and so much fun, we decided to have a night shooting session, and we plan to hit it again this week.
Big thanks to Wolfi, Günter and Dirk for their help and support, I’m sure it’s not gonna be the last jump on the Unternberg slope!
Dani
Christine Hargin in the Alps Part 2
Last days in Engelberg I was recovering from the crashes, me and Matilda with our minor injuries!
Then we drove forward to see another place and meet up with my sister Janette and the last days of the trip were sunny and great. Janette is the best person to ski with at the moment since she’s the leader of the Freeride World Tour at the moment and she always rocks!
We were skiing in Hochfugen in Austria, a really fun place with a lot of opportunity’s. We were hiking and got some really good runs and some photos I think!
And of course some crashes, seems like I’m good at that…
In the end we drove back to Penzberg and the K2 office to leave the car back, god a really enjoyed driving around in the X1, big thanks to K2 and BWM.
Next goal for the season is the Nendaz Freeride in March. Now I will rest and do some work back home in Stockholm.
Christine
K2 Monarch Mountain II
Monarch Mountain invited the K2 crew to check out their Cat Skiing operation, to carve some classic Colorado corderoy, and to session their all-wooden features at the K2 Organic Terrain Park. After days of ripping the high country beyond the resort, it was time team riders Anna Segal, Sean Decker, Shea Flynn, and Birk Irving lapped the park to shoot with infamous team photographer Alex O’Brien. To see the results, you’ll have to wait until the images surface in magazines next year, but for a preview from a far less skilled photog, see below. Special thanks to the tireless Monarch Crew for hauling the team throughout the shoot, and for making sure the shoot was a success.
Christine Hargin’s BMW X1 Road Trip in the alps
Photographer Hannes Söderlund and me arrived in Munich and our journey has officially begun. We started of by visiting the K2 European head office in Pensberg fore some look around and to lend the BMW X1.
Our first stop was Fiebergrbunn for the Freeride World Tour Qualifier. Once we arrived we went up for some warm up skiing, but the day ended up with an avalanches experoence. Everything went fine except for a broken sidestach ski… Lucky us! When we came back to the village we got the message that the competition was cancelled because of bad weather forecast and snow conditions. Not much to do but accept the facts…
After that we drove to the small place next to Fieberbrunn St. Jakop for some photo shoot in the forest and fog! We tried to do the best of it.
Then it was time for the next comp. So we drove to St. Moritz for the Freeride World Tour Qualifier Engadin Snow. That was a fun experience, except from the fact that I crashed in the very end of my run, I tumbled two laps in the last landing. So that was that… So I didn’t qualify for the classic huge face courvach
The weather was perfect and it was fun to be at a comp again. Hopefully I will have better luck next time!
Right now I’m in Engelberg! I have a lot of friends here and I really enjoy the time here. I have tried my first really rocker skis, Obsethed so much fun. Yesterday I unfortunately nocked my chin right in the knee, so my knee looks like a football today and I have first day of from skiing since the trip started. Hopefully back on snow again tomorrow and then Hannes and me gonna try to make some nice pictures!
The slogan of the car feels right for us!
Christine Hargin
Successful weekends for K2 riders
Last weekend, Gloryfy eyewear decided to host a hip competition at the Gerlospass in the end of the Zillervalley, Austria, and one of our Euro Team riders, Mike Hauser, took part.
They competed in teams of 2 persons, so Mike was competing together with Matthias Egger. The hip was pretty huge, as you can see…
In the end, the 2 guys ended up winning the Comp! Congratulations!
Then, yesterday and today, the Mayrhofen Freeski Open wend down, and our Young Gun Lucas Mangold got 2nd at the kids comp! Congratulations!
Unfortunately no pictures from there, but his run was: 270 on the downbox, switch-up 270 off at the kinkedbox, switch 720 mute on the first and a switch 900 mute on the second jump.
K2 Dispatch: Monarch Mountain
With X Games and the SIA tradeshow behind us, the K2 crew assembled at Monarch Mountain, CO. Reggie and Zach Crist, Bryce Phillips, Luke Miller, and Shea Flynn, joined members of our K2 crew for a few days of filming and playing on the new skis from the 2010-11 K2 collection.
Tuesday at Monarch was awesome with blue sky and fresh snow buffing out the upper ridge lines. Monarch’s cat skiing area extends beyond the resort, offering above-alpine laps ranging from wide open and smooth steeps, to craggy chutes and trees.
Wednesday’s highlight came when we were nearly closing up shop on a solid day of shooting. Bryce scouts out a solid 35 ft rock, with a marginal landing. From the bottom we were unsure on the outcome, but before we could debate his air selection, he rolls out a perfect laid out back and shuts up the peanut gallery.
We closed out the day by rolling down to the Crist brothers’ party on wheels; a F450 truck pulling a state-of-the-art Airstream trailer. With the help of First Ascent and Airstream, the Crists modified the rig to serve as the ultimate ski-base on wheels. Space to sleep four, a roll-out PA, hatchback ski-garage complete with full tuning station, the whole setup drew a crowd at Monarch, so we kicked up the tunes and celebrated a solid day in Colorado.
Next up we’ll have 2009 X Games Slopestyle Champion Anna Segal, Sean Decker, Shea Flynn, and one of the youngest groms on the K2 team, Birk Irving ripping the park at Monarch.
