Hotzone Park Opening Hintertux 2017 Images & Report

The first glacier opening of the season in Austria had everything a snowboarder could wish for: new boards to test on perfectly groomed slopes and a superbly shaped park under bluebird skies – at least on the Saturday. And of course it was parties galore in both Tux on Friday and Hintertux on Saturday, with a line up of DJs from all over Europe. By German Editor, Anna Langer.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Hintertux Glacier in such glory in the beginning of October

Three snowboard movies, including the premiere of Absinthe’s TurboDojo set the mood on Friday night – picture perfect with a light snowfall outside. Hence those who didn’t indulge in the all night partying mayhem in the Kleine Tenne in Tux was rewarded with some freshies in the morning and a full-on Alarm Clock Session on the wallride in the park. Thanks to the decent snowfall in the weeks before the opening, the Betterpark presented itself in its full glory, including a complete kicker line, with lots of jibbing fun to be had and even a mini pipe.

With some clouds and wind arriving in the afternoon, the Aftershred Session on the parking lot of the glacier came in especially handy and provided the perfect bridge between the day on the mountain and the evening festivities. Fuelled by pumpkin soup, the health activists at the Gorilla booth are on a mission to get more kids into fun sports activities by touring through schools in Austria, Switzerland and Germany while time teaching them about a healthy lifestyle. While the go-shred.com BBQ with Volcom allowed everyone to empty the last bit of juice from their legs on the skateboard pump track.

It was some of the best conditions we’ve ever experience at this time of year and we can only hope this sets the tone for the rest of the season.

The Tuxer Valley presented itself in full Autumn glory including a fresh icing on the cake.

In the last couple of years the parking lot established itself as quite a hotspot - not just for the Aftershred on Saturday but also for camping

It's been a while since we've seen the Hintertux Glacier in such glory in the beginning of October

Mervin Austria Rep for Gnu, Lib Tech & Roxy Boards Didi Feichtner

Hotzone's Stefan Fankhauser manning the test registration booth

Creative Bindings Display by Rome SDS

Goodboard's Vice President Maik Friese is looking forward to taking the Capra Board out

Others took their dogs out with them on a new Dupraz, handed over by the master Serge himself

Salomon Testival Crew Michael Schirnhofer & Karl Feldbaumer

Kanoa Trading's Björn Betterman offering Bataleon Snowboards & Switchback bindings for testing while Hotzone's Christof 'Stoffel' Huber is completely immersed in some imporant reading

Kanoa Trading's Clemens flanked by the Sane Crew of Innsbruck fame, rail ripper Michi Schatz on the right

Benny & Pia representing for 686 Outerwear who also do some mean snowboard socks & neckwarmers

BuddyBuddy.eu Distribution Manager Rainer Sölch

Nidecker & Flow booth at the edge of the test area with direct slope access

Choppy Water's CEO Nicolas Wendelken giving out Never Summer & Sims Snowboards

The Smith Optics booth was busy despite the blazing sunshine on Saturday - or maybe because of it?

Eddie Rakete with the Rome SDS crew.

Joint booth by Union Bindings, Deeluxe Boots and Capita Snowboards

Head Snowboards Test Team

Burton test booth - always busy, as usual!

Who wouldn't want to test ride all the new gear in such conditions?

Opening Organizer, Speaker & Big Chief of Everything, the one + only Muck Müller

The infamous pump track at the Aftershred Session down in the valley - busy, popular & lethal as usual!

Gorilla.at's Oliver Gordong making sure all the kids survived their first pump track skateboard experience

The health & fun sports specialists of Gorilla.at supplied everyone with super yummy & extra healthy home-made pumpkin soup

Strategicially placed right on the parking lot of the glacier, all Opening visitors stopped by the Aftershred Session sooner or later - it got even more crowded a little later, when all our camera batteries had died...