EURO RAGE: Damuls, Austria gets hit
On February 16th, the IPods were charged as Tommy Ellingson boarded his flight from Portland, OR, Taylor Felton in Boston, MA, and Kyler Cooley and Tim Durtschi in Salt Lake City. These guys were headed to Europe to spend the next few weeks with RAGE, exploiting the natural tranees, street rails, sewage waste dump pillow lines, discos, rental cars, hotels, community toilets, and most of all, the powder, which would pound the Austrian area of Damüls for a week straight.
We arrived early morning in Zurich, Switzerland, Tim sporting his favorite unwashed pair of Saga Outerwear basketball shorts and Taylor lugging bags that clearly had been getting some use this season. We ran into American Nick Greener, who after visiting Europe for a big mountain competition, seems to have made the choice to lose in the area. Just upstairs, Grete Eliassen was gearing up for an Oakley shoot in St. Anton. Conversations were held while I made the unfortunate, but necessary decision to rent a cell phone. What the hell, it’s only $1.16 a minute, right? Try $1.16 per call, per declined call, per missed call (the bill should run RAGE about a G, sorry Sky).
Next it was time to rent another costly item—the rental car. Tommy and I took a cab to Hertz where the reserved foreign car was waiting: a small dung pile that would barely hold Tim’s stash of Swiss chocolate. We declined this rig and opted for a Toyota Previa minivan. We waited four hours at Hertz for the car to show up, but when she did she was a beaut. The Previa had tinted power windows, sliding passenger doors, seating for five, sonar for backing up (and letting you know you just hit something), great sound, storage for stashes, killer tires, an incredible E-Brake and chains (a must). She had everything…and we would need it.
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We rallied the Previa back to the airport, kissed Grete good-bye, and headed to Austria. After a suggested three-hour tour turned into eight, we found the rustic and friendly town of Bezau. Once groceries were purchased, beds were claimed, poops were left, and bedtime stories had been told by European Olympic TV sports reporters, the time had come to dream about building perfect jumps in the Austrian Alps.
After expected bitching about hurrying, the car was packed and we were headed off to a ski resort we had never heard of: Diedams Kopf. We got our lift tickets, boarded the gondola, and headed up. This place is small, but had a lot of new snow and was full of various natural tranees. We immediately headed to a ridge that was crying “slay me, slay me”. As the boys began the easy traverse, cornices began to break off underneath and tumble to the groomers. We opted out and made our way down, where we were immediately greeted by ski patrol. We couldn’t understand anything they were saying, but we were able to make out the general idea. We were in an OB avalanche area and if we went out again, we’d be banned from the mountain.
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With our first run out of the way, it was time to build a jump. Tim spotted an area where we all agreed to head towards. We looked here we looked there and finally chose an area to build next to an old ass historic cabin. We built the jump, everyone hit it once, and we waited for the following day and sunlight.
By the next morning we came up with the idea to build a massive ravine gap jump. We estimated the gap distance at 90+ feet and the peak height off the ground at over 35+ feet; this jump was huge. We sessioned the first jump and the boys were stoked. Taylor threw ginormous right side 3s, Tim, beautiful cork underflip sw5s, Kyler, perfect right 7s and Tommy huge double back flips. Next we were on to the ravine gap. This thing was intimidating and Taylor was all about guinea pigging it. This kid has guts; I’m pretty sure he would hit ANY jump you put in front of him, and this one was no exception. I climbed up a tree to break branches and widen the path of flight while Taylor and the gang made a few speed checks.
I found the spot to shoot from Taylor called his drop. Boom, he was off. The young Mr. Felton cleared the gap and stomped the landing. This gap had just been proved doable. Kyler was up next and right away he was off spinning a massive three into the trees. He must have knocked off a Christmas wreath’s worth of branches, but he made it out with a smile. Tim, who hadn’t hit a gap since his mishap over the creek in Booter Crunk, was up next. Unfortunately this gap was four times the distance and height, so, so much for working up gradually. Tommy and Fabio both quelled their fears and hit the gap. Everyone was safe so it was time for ticks. Taylor nailed another perfect right side 3. Tommy had the biggest air of the day with a front flip, and Tim ended up with the most tech—a right side 180.
Over the next eight days, Damüls, Austria was hit with an 8-day pounding and eight feet had piled up by the time we left. Damuls now measures the highest annual snowfall total for the last ten years in the world.
Many thanks to Sub Industries, Jurgen Kipperer from Scouts Marketing, Diedams Kopf and a ski shop called Sihas.