Nice to see some winter in the midst of summer, though it looks like Snowpark could do with another dusting or three. In the first of this season’s Diaries Downunder Jye Kearney gets all Mean Streets in the intro before jetting to NZ to hook up with the Kiwi crew, before razzing up to Snowpark to hit up the late arvo/night session. The boys are pumped to be back on god’s spuff. Nick Hyne‘s so stoked he even forgets to do up his back binding for a few hits of the box.

Our search for the best shred spots in Europe continued as we visited the Rome Park in Zell am see. And despite the fact that the park is quite young (less than two years old) the dedicated crew have managed to create a little shredorado just a few hundred meters above the world-famous resort town.

Stefan Trenkwalder on the Jib Line, Photo: Danny Burrows

QUICK FACTS

The park’s focus is defi nitely on its many jib features, most of which can be linked into one long park lap. The kickers and the corner are small to medium-sized but always shaped to perfection. This allows for countless hours of fun and a smooth progression of your riding.

ROME PARK SCHMITTENHÖHE

The park was only established in early 2009, but it already has a crew of devoted locals. The dedicated on-hill team and their great shaping abilities aside, this is also due to its affi liation with and support from the infamous La Resistance snowboard shop in town. The park itself consists mainly of jib obstacles and a few small to medium sized kickers. It stretches over the entire length of the Hahnkopf T-bar lift, which is great for doing quick park laps. The small corner is good fun, too.

When we visited the Schmittenhöhe resort it had dumped a good 30 cm overnight, and the crew kept ogling the face of the Maurerkogel above the park, which apparently boasts top backcountry lines. Equally tempting is the Kettingalm chalet at the foot of the park, which offers great food and some reasonably priced accommodation.

RESORT

Schmittenhöhe (939-1,949m)
26 lifts, 77km slopes
1 snowpark (Rome Park Schmittenhöhe)

PARK SET-UP

KICKER

Kicker (5m table)
2 x funbox (6m table)
2 x funbox (4m table)
Corner (20m)
Kicker (10m table)
Kicker (14m table)

RAILS/BOXES

Stair setup
12m down-fl at-down rail
6m handrail
8m kink box
Down box
5m rainbow box
8m A-frame
C-box
6m butter box
Picnic tables
Jib barrel

Simon Pircher, Robert Ahm, Photo: Danny Burrows

GETTING THERE

CAR

From Vienna: Vienna B 227 – A1 – St. Pölten – Salzburg A 1/E 55 – Reichenhall A 8 – Steinpass B 312 – Unken – Zell am See B 311

From Munich: Munich A8 – Interchange Inntal A8 – Traunstein B 306 – Exit Siegsdorf – Steinpass B 312 – Unken – Zell am See B 311

TRAIN

From Vienna: Vienna – Linz – Salzburg – Bischofshofen – Zell am See

From Munich: Rosenheim – Wörgl – Kitzbühel – Zell am See

PLANE

Closest airports are Salzburg, Munich, Innsbruck

WEBSITES

www.schmitten.at
www.kettingalm.at
www.la-resistance.at

In our constant search for the premier shred spots in europe we went to visit the dC area 43 in Kitzbühel. Since we were told the park catered for all riding abilities we talked ethan Morgan and Marco Smolla into coming along for the ride. None of us regretted going there. read on for the lowdown on this great park…

One hell of a setup. Photo: Roland Haschka

QUICK FACTS
A great park for stepping up your jib and kicker game. Countless features in a long park allow for hammering down your perfect line. Mellow booters and hip for your pro friends.

DC AREA 43 KITZBÜHEL
Let’s do away with some confusion straight off the bat. There are actually two DC Area 43s in Kitzbühel, one each on the Northern and Southern side of the resort. While the small but fun Northern park is catered towards intermediate riders, the Southern park – actually closer to Mittersill than Kitzbühel – is where you should really focus your freestyle mojo. It boasts a huge variety of small kickers and jib features, a massive down rail, some boxes and picnic tables, and a pro line including a decent tabletop booter and a great hip feature. An all new park section is in the pipes as well, but the QParks crew told us to keep this information ‘top secret.’ To get to this shredorado just take the gondola from Mittersill, traverse to the Hanglalm lift and you’re there! For the sake of completeness we should add that on powder days the resort offers a wealth of backcountry runs – ranging from easy tree lines to some gnarlatronic cliff drops.

Captain Morgan consults the charts. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

RESORT
Kitzbühel (800-2,000m)
53 lifts, 170km slopes
2 snowparks (DC Area 43 North + South)
DC Area 43 South

Backside Rodeo 7 with some proper tail poke from Ethan Morgan. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

KICKERS:
Beginner line: 3 kickers (2m – 4m)
Intermediate line: 3 kickers (5m – 7m)
Pro line: 3 kickers (8m – 11m)
2 additional kickers (2m and 3m)

Morgan presses one out on the down bar. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Rail:
11m downrail
Miscellaneous:
- Up-tree
- Up-down tree
- picnic tree
- tree jib
- curved tree
- 2 picnic tables
- chill area

EVENTS
DC Rookie Contest
Sick Trick Tour

GETTING THERE

Car
From Vienna: Westautobahn
towards Salzburg – Zell am See –
Mittersill (430 km)
From Munich: Autobahn towards
Kufstein – St. Johann/Tirol –
Kitzbühel – Pass Thurn – Mittersill
(170 km)

Train
From Vienna: Westbahnstrecke
Wien – Linz – Salzburg – Bischofshofen
- Zell am See; Local train
to Mittersill
From Munich: Rosenheim – Wörgl
- Kitzbühel – Take the bus for
Mittersill over Thurn pass
Plane
Closest airports are Salzburg,
München, Innsbruck

WEBSITES
www.dc-area-43-kitzbuehel.com

Smolla sends an air to fakie on the hip. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

BOXES:
- Rainbow box 6m
- Straight box 6 m
- Up-down box 6m
- 2 Butter boxes small
- 2 butter boxes large
- Kinked Box 11m

The Snowpark Damüls is pretty much the place to get your shred on in the westernmost corner of Austria. Check out the work in progress, get the lowdown on new obstacles, and watch some highlights from last season!

More information on the park’s website.

After days of airbagging, the guys and gals at Snowpark NZ’s Performance Camp sack up and take what they’ve learnt to the kickers proper.

As well as the likes of Seb Toutant, Pat Moore, Wojtek Pawlisiak, Marc Swoboda and Jamie Nicholls throwing down their honed doubles on the booter, there’s also a montage of the boy Nicholls owning the jib setup. Check them bang bangs.

More airbag training and a few full-on stompers from Snowpark NZ.

The organisers lay down what the Red Bull Snowboard Progression Camp is all about, while guys like Seb Toutant, Pat Moore and Wojtek Pawlusiak take their doubles from the bag to the booters.