 Poster: A snowHead
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I'll try to keep this reasonably brief as it's both a TR and a review of the Whitedot Freeride Preacher - trying to kill two birds with one stone.
I headed out to stay with my friend Steve on a Thursday, arriving in Salzburg late morning. Thursday afternoon I spent getting to grips with the Preacher in conditions which started fantastically (15cm of fresh) but quickly deteriorated to 15cm of Spring Austrian sugar.
What to say of the Preacher? Bear in mind, for starters, that I have them set up for touring so was skiing them with Marker Baron bindings and Garmont touring boots so I was never going to get an Alpine setup performance out of them but, that said, they are great fun. Let's not pretend they will rail on piste like a 69mm slalom ski, but they certainly hold a great edge and deliver good speed (although they felt slower than the One) but in the fresh they were a joy - floaty, turny (perhaps a little hooky as mentioned in the other review but I wouldn't say TOO much), manouverable in the trees and with good feedback. Perhaps a little too much pop for my liking given that they are not designed to be skied in the park but that could be the camber, as mentioned by Spyderjon, which I believe will be less in the production model.
Despite the intake of a number of weissbiers on Thursday evening, we were up early on Friday for a walking tour following a mountain bike trail up into Altenmarkt. Preachers proved to be less of a handful than I thought they might be for touring – they were certainly no heavier than my friend’s Dynastar touring-specific set-up and the Colltex skins I have for them worked a treat through what was untracked, knee-deep powder. No surprises that with the width of the Preacher my travelling companion was keen for me to lead and forge a nice clean set of lines for him! This tour was more a picturesque leg-stretcher than a route to great lines, but we did get to see a Chamois and it served as a good warm-up for Saturday. If any of my Chamois photos displayed an image which looked less like a dog, I’d post them!
Saturday brought clear blue skies and spring sunshine – perfect! For anyone who knows the area, we drove towards Obertauern and parked at the Vordergnardenalm (1272m) for the start of the climb past the Sudwienerhutte to Spirzinger (2066m). The first part of the route is a walk so the Preachers’ relatively light weight proved a blessing while they were on my back. Once the track starts heading uphill, you can either follow the summer road or head off along shortcuts across the switchbacks, which we duly did. A brief stop for sugar-filled drinks at the Sudwienerhutte was followed by the last part of the climb, switchbacking up to the top of Spirzinger. Unfortunately this coincided with the wind picking up (I was literally blown over at one point) so I probably called it a day maybe 100m form the summit to dig in a bit and enjoy fighting my skins in the ever-increasing gale! Still, that final climb was really worth it, delivering the Preachers a nice pitch of deep powder to glide through. I can honestly say that the climb was worth every minute for the turns at the top.
Lunch in the Sudwienerhutte is highly recommended, partly for the food and the warm welcome, but also for the best line of the weekend: various woollen goods are on sale in the hut and, when asked where they were sourced, the hostess replied “my Sherpa makes them”. From the kitchen duly emerged said Sherpa, from whom I was honour-bound to buy a ridiculous hat for the princely sum of €12.
The run down from the hut to the road mostly follows the route up but there were plenty of untracked areas for me to enjoy the gentle cruise of the Preachers. Niiiiice!
Sunday, sadly, was overcast and rainy – we did set off from Kleinarl (1007m) to Penkkopf (2011) but three hours in we decided that the lack of visibility and the rain were making it more of a chore than a pleasure, so we headed down for beer and groestl.
I do have some reasonable photos of various bits which I will post once they are downloaded, btw.
All in all, a really enjoyable few days in an area which, for me at least, delivers lots of suitably challenging day tours. The Preachers were great all the way through and certainly got some quizzical looks. The green didn’t appear to be too popular! In truth they are probably too wide underfoot for a narrow traverse, but as a ski to get you to some fresh lines, they certainly did the job for me.
That’s the season over for me, unless I suddenly trip over some cash and can find somewhere to sleep at the EOSB, so I’ll get on with enjoying summer and looking forward to Tignes in November.
Cheers,
Zammo
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