The rather empty blog was symptomatic for the beginning of the Winter Season 13/14. There was little snow, little time and little luck with the circumstances.
Compared to last winter, there was practically no freeriding, I don’t want to complain, there is pretty cool stuff one can do with little snow, I just don’t had the balls for it.
But these guys showed pretty well, what would be possible:
And then the Contest Season is on again. And luck kicks in. Or maybe I remembered some technique from all the years before, even if it feels pretty weird to start at such a big event as the Big Mountain Hochfügen with very little self-confidence.
Anyways: We had challenging conditions, some 15 cm of powder on a very hard, sharky bottom layer. But the conditions are the same for everybody, every rider has to deal with it one or the other way. There were some massive crashes, a lot of riders had problems stomping their cliffs properly and then there were some riders who managed amazing lines and who stomped crazy high drops.
I didn’t really manage to show the best of my riding, but I still felt alright about myself. I was so happy, when I got third, I can’t really express it. But after a row of semi-ideal contest results last season, after a very challenging term at university, after the slow start of winter that 3rd place at Hochfügen was close to perfection.
This is also the place to mention the perfect organisation, the tasty riders dinner, the nice start guys and the great terrain in Hochfügen.
Follow this link to see the top runs of the Hochfügen FWQ****
manuela mandl winterlife 
Reblogged this on p.i.e. – powder in the east and commented:
A successful story, and after success one can be sure that there is also the other side of the medal. Reblogged, which explains the strange beginning, cause this blog is everything (great, entertaining, mind opening) but not emty.