Date: 10 December 2019

Montafon will again host the FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup and the Audi FSI Ski Cross World Cup – Cross Alps Tour. From 11 to 14 December, the international snowboard and ski cross elite will go head to head on the steep and winding course of the ski resort Silvretta Montafon in the southernmost valley of Vorarlberg.

Sport on the mountain, and a party in the valley

The spectacular mountain race will be followed by a party in the valley on 14 December. As in previous years, Montafon will again have a world-class entertainment programme. None other than the successful German rock-pop band Silbermond will be performing live on the open-air stage at the valley station of the Hochjoch cable car in Schruns. As the warm-up act, the pop singer Lemo – who has been in the Austrian charts since 2014 – will get the party started. Concert tickets are priced at 39 euros online and are available at Montafon Tourism, in the tourist offices of Schruns, St. Gallenkirch and Gaschurn as well as at the “Silvretta Montafon” cable car ticket counters and at the “Intersport” shops in Dornbirn, Rankweil, Feldkirch, Bürs, Schruns and St. Gallenkirch.

Freeride on the Arlberg

Entertainment will also be on the agenda in Lech Zürs am Arlberg, when the Snow & Safety Conference 2019 on 13 and 14 December will be showing that safety does not have to come at the expense of fun. At the start of the season, professionals pass on the latest research and valuable tips. Alongside presentations, the extensive programme will include various outdoor activities: during theoretical and practical training units, responsible risk management in freeriding is trained.

During the Snow & Safety Coaching session, state-certified mountain and ski guides will demonstrate how to behave correctly, especially in adverse snow and weather conditions. Professionals of the freeride scenes like freeride world champion Lorraine Huber as well as Freereide World Tour riders Nadine Wallner and Stefan Häusl coach participants about the selection of line on the mountain, the playful & safe handling in the terrain risk minimization. In addition, former Freeride World Tour rider Björn Heregger will be teaching sports enthusiasts the basics of freeride touring.

Experience safety

The topic of avalanches will also this year be covered during the Safety Training, with participants being taught the basic skills and knowledge required to search for avalanche victims. They can then test what they have learned in an avalanche emergency scenario with multiple burials. To ensure that is does not come to situations like this, there will also be a workshop on snowpack stability testing in which participants learn how to perform snow cover stability tests for avalanche forecasting and what conclusions they have regarding the stability and instability of the snow cover. Furthermore, the action-packed programme will include equipment tests and presentations by Jan-Thomas Fischer, Head of the unit of snow and avalanches at the Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW), and Alexander Prokop, lecturer in snow and avalanche research at the Universities of Graz and Vienna.