MTB-News: In the last few weeks, the skiers have been replaced twice by motivated snow cutters after the slopes have closed. First, on April 03.04rd, the family arena was taken over at the Pistenwexl in St. Corona am Wechsel, before rocking the night park in Saalbach Hinterglemm together with freeski and snowboard cracks on April 10.04th. However, one by one.
The Pistenwexl – snow blowers #5
The rush was enormous at the first race of this kind at the change. A total of 99 bikers gathered in the family arena to brave the difficult slope conditions together. The approximately 500 meter long course was basically kept rather simple and it was necessary to find the quickest way to the finish line through berms and gates. However, the deep snow turned this simple task into a great deal of coordination and strength.
With the massive rush, the timekeeping was unfortunately a bit overwhelmed and so one or two hours passed, which meant that the actual KO mode had to be thrown overboard in order not to jeopardize the schedule for the aftershow party. So the best run of the two qualifying runs was evaluated without further ado. In the men's category, I had to admit defeat to Austrian Downhill World Cup crack Boris Tetzlaff with second place, closely followed by enduro specialist Bernd Dorrong. In the women's category, Helene Fruhwirth secured victory ahead of Lisa Kreuzer and Eva Rümmele. As usual, you can find the eventful race report here.
Glemmride meets Glemmbang – snow blowers #6
The concept is unique in the snow blower series. The fun park in Saalbach Hinterglemm is tackled together with freeskiers and snowboarders. While the freestylers fight for points for the most spectacular tricks, the bikers fight for the fastest time. The route had it all. A wooden drop, high speed and big jumps for snow conditions demanded the bikers. The warm temperatures didn't make the slope conditions any easier during training. Deeper Sulz had to be overcome and caused the chaos on the route that is typical for snow cutters.
However, after night had fallen and the shape crew had helped with a lot of salt, the conditions for qualifying and the final were almost perfect. In the women's category, local hero Vali Höll was clearly ahead and won ahead of Yana Dobnig and Helene Fruhwirth. In the last race at the change, I was just behind me on the podium this time and had to admit defeat to Bernd Dorrong and thus ended up in second place in front of Marcel Ziegler.
With a narrow lead ahead of Marcel Ziegler, it's off to the last race of this brilliant snow blower season. At the Kasberg Inferno on April 25.04th things will really get down to business again when around 100 participants try to conquer the 3 km long ski slope in a mass start. Until then you can watch the video report from Saalbach here.