Hannah Trigger: Burton European Open

As smooth as Swiss chocolate

I just had a fantastic week in Laax, Switzerland for the Burton European Open. It was snowing almost the entire time I was there. Unfortunately the weather was shocking for the competition, training days got postponed and the slopestyle had to be eventually cancelled because it was too windy and dangerous to run. The park and pipe(which are both awesome) sit right up top of the mountain where the wind was the worst. However slide down the mountain a little bit and you could escape to a tranquil powder oasis.

Not so lovely at the pipe. Blowing a gale and barely visible

My first day riding, which was to be official pipe training, turned out to be probably the best powder day of my life. The snow had been falling all night and it continued dumping huge flakes throughout the day. I'd say it was the deepest pow I've ever ridden. We were laughing and hooting and grinning from ear to ear.

Being first time visitors to Laax we had no idea where we were riding or what area would be best, but run after run we kept scoring deeeep fresh tracks. There is so much terrain and the runs are very long in comparison to what I've been riding. My feet were definitely burning by the time I got to the bottom.

Burton put on a great show and did their best with the weather situation. Tough call to cancel events but when your hitting 60-80ft jumps you want to feel safe, not like your going to get blown to the moon. Even though some events were cancelled I think everyone still went home happy. How could you not after being waist deep in snow for three days.

Huge congrats to young Mt Buller local, Luke Staveley who came 2nd in the Junior Jam. Great effort! I'm not sure where I ended up, it wasn't good. No excuses though, I rode like crap.