Back in 1995 I, Mikko Rapeli, thought that a World Wide Web home page with a portion devoted to my skiing hobby would be nice. I still feel the same. Since 1995 these pages were log of what happened during the skiing season, hand written in html. Finally in 2009 ikiwiki came to the resque and this page is now a real blog.
Most recent posts can be found below, archives of all posts and all comments are also available.
Dropping in Hochgurgl and Galtür
Ötztal does not have much snow as we found out, but Silvretta valley has. This is good to know if going out for some spring skiing in the sun.
Vacation, chilling in the noon sun.
Small cliffs with some snow in Hochgurgl.
Air time from Galtür in the end of Silvretta valley.
Maybe this weekend me and Jouni will take some similar shots.
-Mikko
Night skiing
Skiing in the dark with bright lights is nothing new to us from Northern Europe. In the Alps this seems to be something strange and new. One evening when coming out of skiing all day, we saw some bright lights on a slope and decided to extend the skiing day by a few hours. It was a nice surprise: newly groomed piste with just a hint of crust on top and bright competition lighting. And then we found some soft snow in the forest.
The resort.
Face in the book during lift run.
Some soft turns.
Monster.
After ski and dinner at the Gasthaus.
Overall the night skiing was really good. Freshly groomed piste is nice and 500 meters vertical and steep enough profile are fun for a few hours.
-Mikko
Few photos from Fieberbrunn
Drew Tabke's run in Fieberbrunn Freeride World Tour competition looked like familiar terrain so I had a look at my photos from our earlier trip to the resort. Yes, we were skiing right next to the competition face and I was looking at the exact same natural halfpipe in the shadows. Too bad the pros had a lot better snow than us:
Here are a photos of Jouni ripping in Fieberbrunn.
Hard snow here.
Nice little playground. Freeride competition face is to the right.
Jouni's cart wheel was impressive here.
Let's see what else is left in the archives..
-Mikko
Forrest Camp 2012
Forrest Camp was again held in Pikku-Syöte, Finland. Back side of the hill was the place for a tree skiing competition, stop two of the Treeride World Tour. Judges look at each run and give points in some scale, similar to freeride competitions. My brother is taking this seriously and participating in the whole tour, with support from Armada Finland, and won this events ski category. Young gun and Iso-Syöte Freeride 2012 winner Väinö Löytynoja was second and I modest third on skis. Snowboarders where jibbing a bit more with trees. Here's the official video summary of the event.
FORREST CAMP 2012 from Syöte central park on Vimeo.
They also shot some nice pictures. Here are two of me:
Final of the tour is in Tamokdalen in few weeks but I think I'll skip it this time and ski Tirol instead. Hopefully we get some late winter storms and new snow as well.
-Mikko
Gut, besser...
- Filming & Skiing: Jouni Kananen & Mikko Rapeli
- Edit: Mikko Rapeli
- Music: Clouds by Crimson Blue
The album is pretty good listening:
Fieberbrunn Lawine
Lawine means avalanche in German.
Week ago me and Jouni were skiing Fieberbrunn. Sun was shining and there was a new 10 to 30 cm layer of new snow. We had read about recent avalanche incidents like 1 and read the Tirol avalanche bulletins through out the week. Off piste areas right next to the lifts looked tempting so we headed for the obvious easy access areas which already had plenty of tracks. We had not been in Fieberbrunn before so the terrain was new to us.
On the second run we traversed skiers right from the south facing lifts and skied a tracked line down to a gully riding the ridge which I had previously spotted as a nice looking line. There were tracks on the skiers right side of the area and a traverse path back to the lifts. While skiing I noticed warning signs on skiers left but continued skiing next to other tracks on the ridge. Then something happened.
From the picture:
- my position when I noticed a dust cloud coming from the gully next to us
- Jouni's position when he noticed snow sliding down
- Jouni's position where he stopped and saw the avalanche run down to the gully
- my position where I stopped and saw snow flowing down the gully and coming to a stop
- my position after me, Jouni and a bunch of other skiers on the ridge finally figured out what to do, it took a few minutes after the initial shock, here I could have visual on Jouni when he enters the avalanche area for beacon search
- Jouni entered the steep section with his beacon on and came safely down to the debris, and started a beacon search. Jouni and me had walkietalkies to communicate with.
At the same all of us at the bottom changed our avalanche beacons to search mode and a girl from the group next to me started a search down the debris. I took of my skis and started a beacon search upwards once Jouni was clearly safe. Once Jouni reached my position we both continued the beacon search to the end of the debris area down below. We found no signal and confirmed from everyone else around the area that no-one had seen anyone entering the gully and there were no ski or snowboard tracks entering it. Then we hiked from the debris gully back to traverse and headed for the lifts. Jouni told us that the avalanche crown was around 50 cm high at the top. Hiking took some 15 to 20 minutes and right next to the slopes someone from the resort personnel came to talk to us. The German speaking ones from our group explained that we had not seen anyone or any tracks entering the area and that we had conducted a beacon search on the whole debris without a signal. He thanked us and said that no further actions will be done.
Other angles to the avalanche:
On the big ridge west of the resort was a similar looking area with a natural avalanche:
Later during the day we noticed a few helicopters flying around the resort and heard from a woman in the same lift that another avalanche had taken place next to the See. Today I did an Internet search and found out that two persons were cought and one seriously injured in another avalanche close to Wildseeloderhaus.
We spend rest of the afternoon skiing the flat off piste areas close to Wildseeloderhaus.
Update: Lawinenwarndienst blog has additional details from that day. In general their blog is really informative on the current snow conditions.
Plenty to think about here.
-Mikko
My Opus and Zugspitze
Got my self new skis: Mr Pollards Opus by Line. Thought about JJ's, Bentchetlers, Atlas, Rocker 2 and other things but I ended up with these. Without testing any of them on snow properly. Trusting a gut feeling I guess. I'm not a jibber but the freestyle and moguls background makes my turns small and fast so I went for the playful one. First day was amazing and eye opening. Opus is a fast carver on the slopes and calm on soft snow. On choppy snow it's also not bad when edging. Will these make my tricks better? Probably not. Can I butter in pow now? Nah. Slash, spray and surf like Mr. Pollard in the Nimbus flicks? Sorry, no chance. Will I have more fun? Sure looks like it. TGR forums have pretty spot on reviews about the skis. Bindings were set to -2 cm, not quite at jib center but not at 'freeride' -5 either. I was lacking some tail in the HellBents when going fast so maybe this helps.
Here's how the testing day went with my work mate Onur in Zugspitze Arena:
- Filming and riding: Mikko & Onur
- Music: I Love You Babe by El CalmaNiños from Jamendo.com
Waiting for the proper powder days to test them out... Next weekend maybe?
-Mikko
Few days in Landeck
Matti's post to Läskikymppi freeride teams website and a nice video clip made me look into my archives as well. Here's a weekend warriors view to skiing in Landeck, Tirol.
During Friday evenings shopping spree we saw huge snow flakes.
In the morning we were greeted with this wonderful view:
Saturday's skiing was like business as usual in the previously non-disclosed location. After ski was as wild as ever:
Matti shooting various things:
On Sunday the lifts at town resort were finally running again and after wind calmed down we got some good lines in the afternoon:
A long day. We were the last ones on the lift before skiing down to the village and shooting some stills at sun set. Jouni and a steep turn:
Then we lost Matti but luckily ended up on the same street corner wondering how long walk it is to the main lift station and parking lot:
On the parking lot we saw someone getting a heli ride from the forest, not nice. Be careful out there!
Thanks to Matti, Arno and Teemu for the company.
-Mikko
Home made rockers and Iso-Syöte Freeride 2012
DIY rockers
Ingredients:
- pair of old skis
- a few clamps
- heat from hot air blower or similar, I guess a Finnish sauna would do
- engineering maths or some other thick rarely used book
Steps:
- squeeze a book between two skis in transport position, breaks locked together
- find suitable place for the clamps and tighten them to get the desired shape
- heat the skis around the clamps
- let the skis cool down with the clamps and book in place
- ...
- profit?
Here's my setup. Skis are a few years old Extrem Big'Os (~105 mm at center) with a nerdy paint job and which need some rocker for the good days in my opinion. Book is Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Erwin Kreuzig. Finally found some use for it. Clamps and hot air blower are cheapo stuff from the hardware store. Little helper is optional.
End result after cooling down for 4 hours shows that the rocker is not exactly straight. But I don't mind.
Tested them out on hard slopes and rocker did not seem to make the skis worse than they were, and they were decent on hard pack. Did one run next to the Syöte Freeride slope in the woods and the tip felt a bit short and tail long, but maybe that's just 'cos I've gotten used to the K2 Hellbent 189's which are at least 10 cm longer. The forest had hard base and 5-10 cm of soft snow on top so the nose was not sinking, but nor was it bringing the ski up too much. More testing needed.
Iso-Syöte Freeride 2012
Went to test the new rocker skis with my kids to the Iso-Syöte Freeride 2012 event. Weather was really cold, -26 at the bottom of the hill so after 30 to 45 minutes we had to go and warm up. Luckily the freeride event seemed to go well and there were over 30 competitors going for the prize skis, boards and other gear from the local sport shop in Oulu.
Testing the skis on hardpack and cold conditions.
The kids were stoked to hear their aunt advance in the dual moguls style freeride event. Too much TV and dancing with the stars, I'd say.
Results and video footage were shown at the restaurant just in time as usual. Winner was one of the upcoming stars Väinö Löytynoja who I was happy to coach a few years back in the freestyle schools.
There was a nice party after the event of course, I hear. We drove back to Oulu since it was a bit too cold in the end.
Update: Nice story of the event with photos in relaa.com and video of all competition runs:
-Mikko
Montafon sun
Midst all the storm riding in January, there was one cold but sunny Saturday when me and another Janne from work did a day trip to Silvretta Montafon. Pow was gone with the wind and sun but there was light few centimeters of fluff on top of the crusty snow, and sun was out. Ski area was big and we started from the north end and wandered through the lift system to the south end and back. Roads were rather packed with ski tourists and we got our share of staus on the way so the day started out slowly. The ski area is not that high -- peaks are around 2400 meters -- but there are some nice ridges and interesting cliff lines and avalanche barriers here and there. No wonder I've seen a bunch of Swedish ski flicks during the past few years with some footage filmed there. Obvious powder routes were rather packed with fat ski folks and few groups were skinning and going to the edges of the resort for the last glimpses of fresh untracked lines. Here are some pics from the day.
Sunny lift line, and on the back the obvious off/on piste areas. Rather flat as you can see. Not visible in the picture are the cracks where the whole snow cover has slid on top of grass a few meters here and there.
Another mellow flat section with some tracks to ski.
And all smiles after the sunny day. The resort seems to have a good after ski. Too bad we missed it and headed home.
That was Silvretta Montafon.
-Mikko
New year 2012 in pics
January 2012 is almost over so pics and videos are plenty. Here are a few from the new year celebrations, mostly by Jouni Kananen. In short Tirol got pow.
Parking lot shows what to expect for 2012.
Me somewhere in there.
Me dropping. The rock was taller than that tree but somehow that looks small.
Parking lot at See.
Jouni going under, almost.
Snow men.
Look what I found: a radler. Partying hard on new years eve.
Instructions how to use sauna, as if a couple of Finns really need one.
That was new year. Lets see what else I have left on the memory cards and hard disks. Bis später.
-Mikko
Ski touring in Allgäu
Cold and crispy mid January Sunday 2012, just over the border from Germany to Austria. 1000 meters up in four hours and one run down:
Here's our line:
That ice layer on the top section, it was really bad. On the way up behind the ridge it was all pow. Off to next ski challenges...
-Mikko
Iso-Syöte Freeride 2012 teaser
Download Iso-Syöte Freeride 2012 teaser.
- Photos & Videos: Ilkka Uusitalo, Santtu Kaikkonen, Tommi Meriläinen et al
- Music by David Löhstana
- Edit: Mikko Rapeli
Aika: lauantai tammikuun 28, päivä 2012
Paikka: Iso-Syöte, Freeride-rinne
Suomen suurin, kaunein ja rohkein vapaalaskutapahtuma.
Kisa lasketaan tällä kertaa dual-tyyppisenä, eli lisää nähtävää, enemmän laskuja mutta sama hyvä meno.
Freeride-rinteen alaosassa City Sport ja suksien maahantuojat testauttavat uusimmat läskisukset samaan aikaan.
Klo. 11.00-11.30 Kilpailijoiden ilmoittautuminen Freeriden alaosassa
klo. 12.00 Laskut Freeridessä
klo. 17.00 Palkintojenjako & afterski Pärjänkievarissa
Lisätietoa: Santtu Kaikkonen, 040-7261565 Jaakko Rapeli, 050-4873074
http://www.syote.fi/fi/aktiviteetit/laskettelu/freeride/
Turvallisuussyistä laskijoilla on oltava kypärä. Laskijoiden tulee allekirjoittaa vastuuvapautus -lomake, heillä tulee olla vakuutus joka kattaa tapaturmat rinteiden ulkopuolella ja heidän tulee olla täysi-ikäisiä.
Yes, I'll be there too.
-Mikko
Roar from Tirol
Year 2012 started with a bang. Powder, all over the Alps. Here's the evidence.
- Skiing & filming: Mikko Rapeli, Jouni Kananen, Tommi Meriläinen
- Edit: Mikko Rapeli
Due to some very nice music by Of the I from Jamendo.com we're licensing this video with Creative Commons attribution share alike license. Second piece of retro electric music by pornophonique.
Ride safely!
-Mikko
December tourists 2011
By early December 2011 we had been to the glacier resorts and got to know them pretty well. Janne L. of Prego fame had a business trip to Ulm and for some reason we ended up spending a nice weekend in the Alps. I wonder how that happened?
Since the dry November was coming to an end and at least one low pressure system had dumped some new snow we went to see some non-glacier resorts: Serfaus and Isghl.
Serfaus
A big tourist resort, nice alpine village and a curvy road up to it (where snow chains may be needed as I found out later on, more on that in another post). Unfortunately the low pressure had also brought some wind and the snow we had was not blower pow anymore. Instead we had nice fields of packed but new snow on top of grass and small rocks. With fat skis and (powder?) boards we were able to hit some nice lines under chair lifts above treeline and hike some ridges.
Me on a ridge in Serfaus...
where Jouni and Janne L. look at the funny gray sky which ate our sun shine a few minutes ago.
Isghl
The next day we saw clouds in the valleys but decided to head to Isghl where it was full bluebird above the valley clouds. Nice!
Jouni on a ridge close to some chair lifts. Yes, rocks visible here and there but also some good enough early season snow on the grassy sections.
The camera man -- me -- got lost here but the picture is somehow nice.
Janne L. carving on a soft section...
and straight lining a rocky section.
Jouni shows the view from the ridge.
So that was early December. A small dump of snow, maybe bigger in Arlberg/St. Anton but we got some fresh tracks and sun. Skis got plenty of rock hits, but that's normal wear and tear I guess.
Luckily more pow was to hit the Alps this season 2011/2012!
-Mikko
Novemberski 2011
Here's my skiing update from November 2011, a bit late but there are reasons. In a slightly unexpected move I have started working for the old rubber boot manufacturer and moved to the town of Ulm in Baden-Württemberg. One of the reason is visible on a clear day from my office window when the snow covered peaks are visible in the southern horizon. Just two hours away are the Alps and Tirol.
Beginning of October saw the first snow dump of the season. We were there to ski it but since then a cold and sunny climate was strong. It was not that bad since there was some snow on the glaciers and weather was great -- at least in the Alps. Ulm is famous for its mist which comes in during high pressure times. And may stay around for weeks.
During the sunny season I got spend my first full day in a ski park in five years. I've managed to do some kicker runs every once in a while to keep some tricks working but a full day of pro line kickers with 15 meters between takeoff and landing, that was special. Also, since we got quite familiar with the glacier resorts during early season, we know pretty well what to do when low pressure systems dump some snow. It's nice to do first tracks on obvious off piste routes.
So November and December were dry to start with, but since then the Alps have truly seen a lot of snow. More stories to come...
If anyone likes to ski powder, head to the Alps now! Cheers,
-Mikko
Hot dogging with Glen Plake
The last few days of October were special on the mountains. First we had sunshine and some relatively fresh snow in Hintertux glacier. The weekend was a long one so the place was packed with click-clack skiers, piste sliders and ever so cool park rats. We found the least crowded lift line and started looking at the cliffs and small pow stashes near by.
But we were not alone. Glen Plake was there with his wife and a small crew scoping the same lines as us, and enjoying the mogul run next to the cliffs. "Let's show those racers some kick ass mogul skiing!" he said after hearing we come from Finland.
Fans.
Moguls workout in 3000 meters altitude. Back still sore from it. My thighs had big cramps in the afternoon due to the mogul runs.
Jouni dropping into soft snow in the shadows. No turning back.
Jouni controlling speed after the drop in.
In the afternoon the sun turned to light our play field and also some racer groups started skiing in the bumbs.
Lunch time.
And this is how my ski day breakfast looks like. Healthy?
Sunday was a repeat. Weather was fine and snow cold. Men were a bit beat up but we spent the day queueing the lift to the snow park. Medium line with two 12 meter kickers had no queue so we made around six laps on it. I did my first front and back flips of the season and Jouni tried the big kickers for the first time as well. It is a bit nerve racking at first but after some repeats it gets easier. I had left my GoPro at home so no footage from the kickers, sorry.
Our car pool junction was in Rosenheim this time. Jouni heads to West and I continue up North on the autobahn once luggage is sorted out.
Next days and maybe weekend as well go on dry and warm land so the beat up muscles and joints get to heal.
Bis bald,
-Mikko