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The gorgeous Brandner Valley located in the very western part of Austria close to the Swiss and Lichtenstein border boasts great skiing, spectacular views and a really special, creative and well thought through park. It’s designed by riders for riders. I had the pleasure to ride with the head shapers and local Volcom rider Simon Holzknecht.
The park is ridiculously long: A full run of 30 plus jibs, hits, rails, boxes, bonks, two large well shaped booters and not to forget the dead tree hip jump which has an old dead tree on top where you can bonk of branches if you get enough air. You can take the speedy 6 person chair for the full park run or take a short tbar if you just want to hit some of the rails and jibs at the very bottom.
The shaper house has everything you need to chill out; lawn chairs, beers, BBQ, beats and of course the head shaper dog Charlie. The vibe here is just amazing, it reminded me of BC style skate inspired snowparks.
Brand/Börsenberg are connected by a Whistler style peak to peak gondola giving access to plenty of terrain: Gladed trees, steep, cliff littered faces and great touring areas. A lot of the mountain is south facing and catches quite a bit of sun which makes spring slush skiing and park riding super fun. But no worries there are plenty of sheltered faces that hold powder.
The Brandnertal has a really relaxed vibe, no crowds, no liftlines, amazing and helpful locals. It’s great to see this kind of vibe not far from the huge, overcrowded, party style austrian skiresorts.
Just great shredding with new friends, a cold beer in the sun and of course some goodies fresh from the park BBQ.
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