Words: Jack Clayton//Photos: Sam Oetiker

It ain’t winter till Austria says so, and with the Stubai Premiere kicking things off in style yet again this year – that idea has never been more based in reality than it is right about now. The opening event for the Stubai Glacier drew huge numbers of elite freestyle snowboarders and skiers from across Europe and was, all things considered, a resounding success.

The weather was excellent, with blue skies bluer than early noughties boyband Blue. And, the snow. The snow! Well, we’re happy to report that the snow was absolutely superb. What’s more, the brand new state-of-the-art 3S Eisgratbahn gondola worked like a total dream and successfully avoided any sort of Titanic-type maiden voyage disaster. In a nutshell, the weekend was winning at life…whichever way you looked.

Schneestern’s Bernhard Burger (a man with a name so good we genuinely can’t stop looking at it), had this to say: “The event was a magnificent start to the new season. We were able to launch the expanded set-up of the new Stubai Zoo as planned. And our new idea of putting on a programme for freestyle skiers was very well received.” Bernhard Burger, you park designing extraordinaire, we salute you.

“The weather was excellent, with blue skies bluer than early noughties boyband Blue”