Location: Kitzsteinhorn Kaprun, Austria
Time frame: 11/09/2007-15/09/2007

In retrospect I have to admit that this was a lifetime snowboarding experience. Being able to ride fresh dry powder at the beginning of September in Europe is far from usual. The idea came up quickly and unexpectedly. Two weeks before the trip a majority of the European all-year-round resorts were closed, because of an inefficient snow cover. Kitzsteinhorn had about 15-30 centimeter base at the top station due to a warmer summer. A week before the trip (3-7/09/2007) a low pressure field was forecasted to circled above the Alps. This anticyclone should have hit some parts of the Alps with a lot snow during falling from about 1500 meters above sea level.

No one knew which parts of the Alps will get hit the most and in the end the eastern Alps got the biggest load. I was checking the Salzburg area at that time as it was the closest place from my home (even though still 700 kilometers away). The anticyclone did stay around much longer than previously anticipated and its slow movement over Austria brought a dump of 50-70cm of fresh snow. The winds were fortunately milder, so the snow could settle and create an optimal base.

Thanks to this unexpected snow storm Kitzsteinhorn reopened on Saturday, 8th September. I missed the first days after this major snow fall and it was a bit sad to sit at home and check the webcams. Fortunately after two nice days there was even more fresh snow on the way. Initially around 5-10cm above 2200m for the night from Monday to Tuesday. The forecast also showed that around noon on Tuesday the sun should start to poke through the clouds brining an entire week of sunny weather. That promised a wonderful September powder experience for at least three beautiful days (Wednesday till Friday). Three “dream” days were enough for me to start planning. I called my friend Tomas and described the situation. “Do you want to snowboard in powder?” I got a neutral response and had to wait till the evening for his call. Thankfully he could take a few days of at work and within the next few minutes our trip was planned… Departure: Monday. 10th September @ 8PM.

After a decent reorganization of my university activities for the upcoming week, packing, shopping,.. we were finally on our way. It was raining during the whole way and the weather conditions allowed only slower driving. Around 2AM we were bypassing Salzburg and heading more south. It was this night+morning that had the 10cm of fresh snow on forecast. The heavy rain during the whole way and even heavier around Salzburg promised a very promising morning and we were thinking of even more than 10cm of fresh powder. We arrived in Kaprun at 3:20AM and it was still raining heavily. We were concerned that the weather might not get better in time. At least we could finally have a rest after a 7+ hour journey, but it had to be on the seats of the car. Hotels, b&bs and hostels were closed at this time. The sleep didn’t take long. I woke up within 2 hours felling damn cold…6AM…still raining and still heavily.