This is Austria

Snowboarding is awesome. The Alpenrider Hostel is aweome. Jagermeiseter is awesome. Pretzels are awesome. Austria is, in a word, Awesome!

Even taking a week off from marathon training to go snowboarding is pretty awesome although it's not technically in any trainig plan that I've seen.

Snowboarding one week every three years is not a great way to stay in pratice. Good thing for me then that the other guests at the hostel were in a similar situation and it wasn't hard to find someone at my level to ride with.

Having picked up the new lens "Gordo"** over Christmas in Canada I was determined to bring it out on the mountain and get some cracking action shots.

Results were mixed for a couple of reasons. First, the conditions. Bright and sunny, while a beautiful day for riding, also meant for some serious reflective conditions. So not only was I figuring out my new lens and fighting the cold while trying not to get snow in my bag or on my camera, I was also struggling with my settings to get the results I wanted.

The second was skiers. I had forgotten how obnoxious they are. There's always been a skiier snowboarder rivalry but and I'm not just saying this because I'm a snowboarder: Skiiers suck. If you were walking down the beach, society would deem it unacceptable for someone to unprovokedly kick sand in your face. Similarly if you're walking down the street you don't expect to get spit on spontaneously. Why then do skiiers find it acceptable behaviour to spray snow on everyone they can find includig photographers or snowboarders who had pulled off to the side for a quick lie down because he was hungover. Ooooo skiiers you can make snow change direction in a big spray cloud...you're soooooo coool.

Ok rant over. The reaon why I brought the camera onto the mountain was that I do think skiing is cool. It's fast and graceful and a perfect test for me and Gordo to capture the action. That's why, in addition to not wanting to get snow all over my valuable and uninsured camera equipment, it's all he more frustrating to that skiers' personalities (on the mountain anyway) makes me want to punch them in the face.

The other challenge I had to overcome was the mountain itself. It's huge.

It takes a long time and a lot of riding to get from one lift to the next and when you're trying to do it with a bag full of camera equipment and a monopod on your heel edge so you don't wipe out and fall on top of your stuff so if you do decide to go wayyyy over to the other side you definitely earn your mountain side beer at the end of the day.

As an aside the little mountainside pub was great. Like a little oasis of beer and german themed music that pops up unexpectedly*** over a little riser on the run home.

Somehow, even though I kept all of my equipment safe and sound and dry and (as) warm (as possible) I managed to lose my goggles on the way back. It was disappointing for more reasons than the fact that they were virtually brand new (having used them only one other time climbing Aconcagua) but also because, well, I needed them.

In retrospect I should have just bought new ones. The goggles I borrowed were a friend's spare pair, having been relegated to spare status owing to the fact that they fog up easily. Combined with the low visibility and and snow and my desire to keep up with the group led to me boarding virtually blind for a good couple of hours. Predictably it didn't end well and I ended up face down in the snow with the front of my board wedged into about 3 feet of snow.

Although it was, by eye-witness accounts, an "amazing wipeout" I knew right away that something was not right and though I managed to get down to the little lunch place my ankle was killing to the point that after lunch I could not put any weight on it.

This would be the end of my riding for the week. Although my primary concern was whether or not it was broken (it wasn't) and what that would mean for my marathon training to which I'd already devoted considerable time and effort (it was a setback but not too serious****

Secondarily of course I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get back on the mountain to seek out the terrain park with my camera. After a day off of relaxing at the pool I could manage to hobble around well enough to get out on the mountain.

I figured free-stylers would be more acommodating to photographers and I was right. Well they paid me no mind anyway which is actually what I wanted.

The conditions were'nt great for photography, fog has never really been a good canvas on which to paint a picture, (unless fog is the subject) but with a lot of patience and until my feet started to get cold I did manage to get some decent shots.

Surprisingly the shots I ike best were not with Gordo but with the super wide angle from less than 1m from the ramp.

I also experimented a bit with the polarizing filter.

It was my first real session with my new lens and I learned a lot about capturing action ***** I think I might be getting to old for the type of holiday where you ride all day and stay up all night partying but Austria was amazing and I recommend it to anyone.

Photos 1) Scenic mountain view 2) Scenic mountain view 2 3) The crew 4) The crew 2 5-7) Skiiers. I never did get a really great photo of skiing action 8) See how much more laid back boarders are? 9) Scenic mountain view 3 10) A bit of après-ski 11) A skillful boarder who could see perfectly - shot from a moving chairlift. 12) With a sprained ankle I had to bid auf weidersein to the crew for the day at an easily recognizable landmark. 13-18) Terrain park action 19) Scenic mountain view 4.

*It's great cross training especially for the first few days when you're going full out all day and using the legs differently from the everyday.
**Gordo is a 70-200 f2.8 Canon piece of super awesome camera equipment.
***It's even unexpected when you are expecting it because you forget the topography and can't remember which corner the pub is around so it's got the unexpected thing going for it even when you are looking for it. If that makes sense?

****To be addressed in a future post.

*****When shooting on the mountain I think you have to decide whether you're shooting or riding and not try and do both. I should have just picked one or two spots close together and waited for the action to come to me. That said a couple of my better shots like the photo 1 came from "the othe side".