Red Bull Hüttenralleye 2010

Hello guys this years first Red Bull Hüttenralleye was a blast. I qualified pretty easy for the final day. I won the first heat and got second in the final qualification run on tuesday. I was super stoked, the course a real ski cross course was not what I expected when I arrived in St. Anton. Two huge jumps on the qualification day with about 25m and 40m were on the plan. :D

The final day a lot Ski cross worldcup riders has been invited, names like Dahron rahlves, Simon stickl, enak cavagio, tomas kraus are all riders who have won worldcups, where waiting for the qualified riders on the final day. The le mans start (running to the skis) didn´t worked out so good so that I didn´t qualified for the Semifinal heats as an unlucky forth but it was still so much fun and a super good experience. Here is a picture from the athletes dinner with my friends Christian Reichenberger und Sepp Schmölzl.


here all the qualified riders: .... :D

Here is the bottom part filmed by one of the riders Helmetcam with the big jumps. The first one was easy 25m and the second 35- 40m. :D
enjoy watchin....



see you guys soon, merry christmas to everyone!

Movie Premiere Munich

As I said, here some pics from the movie premiere in Munich. It´s was pretty epic. Over 140 people showed up. We all had a really great time, special thanks to Niko and Nina from SOS who organised that stop for us.Here the whole Crew: Johannes, myself, Niko (SOS), Cameraman Kai



Lots of give aways from Blizzard, SOS, Blacksheepsports and Peak

Big thanks to Nina & Niko


The Blizzard Crew, me, Steve and Ralf; super cool that you guys showed up!

FULL HOUSE :D

so some impressions from munich....it was preety sweet. on the weekend we hunt some powder in Nauders...wish you guys a nice christmas time. ride on

Champaigne Powder ! ! !

Last monday me and Gex ( he is a new member of our SOS Freeride Team (SOS TEAM ALPS)) decided to go to Hochfügen, Zillertal (Austria). When we arrived in the parkinglot we had no idea how amazing that day would turn out....
A ridicoulous day, champaigne powder and bluebird. It was just unreal. The best day of the season so far......checkout our small clip....

Champaigne Powder ! ! ! from Eric Zeller on Vimeo.

Premiere Konstanz

The day finally arrived. Last friday was the day of the premiere in Konstanz. It was super special for me showing it in my hometown. I was super excited and maybe a bit nervous as well, presenting our movie to all my friends, family and the freeride community from Konstanz. In the end almost 90 people showed up and it was a total blast. I was really happy and we partied the wohle night. Check out some pics.....




Konstanz was the second stop after vienna. Munich is coming on the 14th and I will put some more news up after that.


Check back for some more news coming soon....a short episode : Powder in Hochfügen (austria) will come shortly as well as the premiere in Munich.

The next week coming up is going to be epic; I am invited to start at Red BULL event: Hüttenralleye:
The motto is to ski and compete with the pros like Dahron Rhalves, Andreas Matt (Several times Worldcup Winner Ski Cross) and some more... :D

http://www.redbull.at/cs/Satellite/de_AT/Red-Bull-H%C3%BCttenrallye/001242897564619

so we see how that goes, I think it gona be lots of fun for sure.....I will give my best as always and bring some pros in trouble....cya ya all soon again....

North America, publications and the long awaited Movietour!

So well, some news from overseas!
USA/CANADA was for sure cool but not so much snow as I expected.
It was still nice and I had a chance to see some old buddies and friends. We tried to go out and do some sleding and filming, lets see in a couple month how it worked out. :D


While away powdermagzin.de published an interview about myself and an article about the whole summertrip in New Zealand, you guys can find it here, its pretty epic, thx to the guys from powdermagazin: http://powdermagazin.de/#/42



Than finally I can present the tour dates for our long waited Movietour 2010/11.
Its going to be
Vienna 3.12 (20h Schmezbar (Hangloose Party))
Constance 10.12 (Jugendzentrum Gustav Schwabstr.12c) open doors 19.30h, start 20h!
Munich14.12 (padres) www.padres.de (19h open doors, start 20h)
Salzburg 17.12 more infos closer to the event...
Gießen 22.01 same here


Event Flyer for Constance, my hometown! see you all there.....


We tried to show in our movie a lot about a different society you guys may know. Freeriding is a passion we all share and love that´s what we try to show. We are like a big family! The movie is pretty humerous and shows how much you can do even with a small budget. It shows a lot about a beautiful country and his people. Amazing pictures from nature, wilderness and of course of freeriding. I hope you guys have chance to watch it and come to your own opinion. For myself it was one of the best eperiences of my life....

hope to see you guys all at the premieres.....those who don´t come miss out! :D

shred the gnar.....

The Season has begun....

Its has been a while since you guys have heard anything from me. I have been really busy the last couples of weeks.

I am now home from New Zealand. And I can just tell you guys it was the most epic trip of my life so far. The country, the people and the snow have been amazing to us. Everyone should go "Downunder" and check it out, it´s really hard to put in words.

Since I am home I was studying a lot so that I have most of the winter free for shredding. In the meanwhile I was in the gym getting myself in shape.

Lots of projects going to happen this season. We are going to have our movie premiere with New Zealand Project in december. First stopp is going to be Munich than Salzburg and hopefully Konstanz and Cologne. I just saw the final edit and guys for a low budget production it´s going to be epic....I promise! :D If you haven´t seen checkout the Trailer, our watch it again....just to remind everybody how much fun skiing is....

New Zealand - Where dreams come true (Trailer) from Kai Stoeckel on Vimeo.

I also met the guys from Blizzard while beeing back from New Zealand. It was super cool, I haven´t seen so determined people in a long time, I really aprrechiate their effort and passion for Freeriding. Thank you really much guys your are great. BLIZZARD is going to be big the next couples of years...the have some jokers left in their pockets you will see.... :D They also set up a little feature about me on their webpage: http://www.blizzard-ski.com/index.php?id=5#76,0,329,0,0

This weekend was the first time on snow since beeing back from NZ. Kaunertal was on, it was sonwing a little but it was a still a bit to rocky to get a real freeride feeling so that I spend some time in the park as well, but all in all a great weekend.


In two weeks I am hopefully enjoying some good B.C. powder, I am flying out to Seattle to shred some pow and get some filming done. I will upload some pics for sure than.....till than take it easy guys.....and watch out for big dumps....

peace out

Earthquake, powder and some more.....

The last week was definitely one of the interesting weeks so far. We spend some time with the Austrian crew we met in Castle Hill. Castle Hill is really close to the mountains a beautiful little town with like 40 houses. It's really famous for its Boulder rock climbing. Castle Hill is based about an hour from Christchurch and every minute drive worth.

Emi Earle has a house there, and after we meet the Austrian crew who are staying with her it didn't took long to get to know her. She is a pretty cool kiwi girl that's for sure not that she led us 4 stay as well at her house, she also makes amazing cookies. :D

All in all a really cool stay. I hope we see her again some time and can give back what she did for us. thx so much.

On Tuesday it started to dump like crazy and you guys can't even imagine how stoked we where. Ready to go out an play in the snow and shred some white powder. Mt Olympus was on....incredible powder all day hand in hand with bluebird weather...amazing.

Castle Hill in the morning of the powder day....








Mt Olympus itself :D









Fresh powder on Mt Olympus










The Austrian Crew and us with emi in the middle








On Friday we went back to Christchurch where Emi hast a beach house....ridiculous, so cool. its up the hill with an amazing view over the beach and ocean. It was the night that I will remember for the rest of my life. It was the night of the Earthquake. It was around 4.30 a.m. when some reallty started to shake under me, till I realized what was going on the quake was probblay goin on for already 10sec. and it kept going for another 10seconds. Luckly nothing happend we where all fine. Just 10 km away from us houses where really damaged and destroyed. Thanks to God that no one died.



Pictures of the Earthquake













Right now we are on the north island waiting for good weather to ride the last couples of days at Mt. Ruapehu and end the trip with the freeride world tour contest.
So stoked.... :D

Some impressions so far....

Hey guys,

its been a couple of days since I was in Wanaka. Since than we have been to Dunedin watched pinguines and I actally saw an albatross. It was pretty cool. New Zealand really rocks. After that we went back up north to ski in the clubfields were we skied Temple Basin a really cool clubfield. It was a bit of a walk to get there (45mins up the hill), but it was totally worth it.

Our base right now at Castle Hill. having breakfast in the morning....








Springfield, I found Homers real hometown..... :D












New zealand famous parrot, the Kea...really cool and evil...hahha









Powder Day in Cragieburn









Nice sunset after skiing in Mt. Olympus









Me in Treble Cone, watching down in the valley








At the westcoast, checking out the Franz Josef Glacier








Cliff drop at Temple Basin, it was really cool up there








We met an austrian crew also skiing here, pretty cool guys. We decided to ski together, and its been awesome.... :D









This is Fred, one of the coolest kiwis....we stayed at his house for a week- no problem. Thx so much fred! :D








For the last two weeks the plan is to head up to the northern island. We are going to ski Mt. Ruhapehu. Ruhapehu is a vulcano and its still activ. So I am really excited how its going to be up there.....
There is also a Big Mountain Competition were we going to start....so much more to come before i fly back home at the 13th.. :D

Stay tuned....

Eric



Photos: Kai Stoeckel

NZ Völkl Open, Freeride World Tour, 8th Place

Wow, overall an really impressive day.
Still feel a bit hangover from the afterparty, so we actually had some reason to party.

Back to the contest itself. :D Finally, after 3 days of postponing due bad weather conditions, the competion was able to be held. Snow conditions weren´t really great. A litte fresh of like 3-4cm on a really icy pack, so good edges should have been mandatory.

I am enterting as the 15th competetor in the startinglist. It finally clears up a little before I leave the startinggate. First turns in really nice snow, I try to get as much speed as I can (other competitors came to me afterwards telling me that it looked ridicoulous fast) :D

As the steep part begins I am looking for my first cliff to hit, I see it in front of me....looks bigger than i thought, but I am to fast to stopp anyways. Good drop, perfect landing, first part of the run is done. The next turns bring me into a really alpine face, only 3 people chose to ride there. End of the face brings me into an big couloir I try to sideslip it as much as I can then straight it....lots of speed into the last turns but I am able to handle it and ski safe to the bottom. My helmetcamrun is attached at the end of the text.

In the end I come 8th on a 3 star Freeride World Tour event. My final score is only 5points away from the podium, it was really tight up top. I am still happy and look forward to more freeriding.

It´s just amazing here in NZ.....more to come.

Cheers

Helmetcamrun NZ Open; Rider; Eric Zeller:

8th place - Völkl New Zealand Open, Freeride World Tour from Kai Stoeckel on Vimeo.

Trailer for our epic skimovie.....

Hey we made it....hahha just kidding. It´s not done yet, not yet. But we collected some footage from the stuff we did so far. From the looks of it our movie is going to be epic. So far we skied in Cragieburn, Roundhill, Mt. Olympus, Treble Cone and some lines where we went up with the heli.

Our cameraman Kai Stoeckel (thanks to him :D) edited in hours and hours a trailer for our epic movie project New Zealand - Where dreams come true.

I am super stoked, we are all really happy and can´t wait to get some more snow to ride some gnarly lines.


Trailer: 2010 New Zealand - Where dreams come true

Videocut by: Kai Stoeckel

World Heli Challenge 2010, 7th Place

It´s thursday, last day of competition.The alarm goes down at 6.00 a.m., everybody is super stoked, but when we arrive at 7.00 a.m. in the parking lot we are still on hold, cause there are a lot of clouds up in the mountains. An our later everything is clear and a beatuiful cometition face is presented to us. The face is pretty steep and there a lot of cliffs to hit. Unfortunately its pretty icy and no powder in sight.

I´m coming with bib number 18, I have solid run and I am happy with it. My second turn in the competition face gets the whole snowpack under me going but I am able to manage the sluff and ride it out. My next turns brings me in to the main part of the face where I picked one couloir to an open field. Big turns to the next ridge, its really icy here. :D One last drop at the end and finish. I am super stoked, the othere riders are cheering. In the end I take 7th place. I was hoping for a bit more, buts its a judgement sport and the judges liked something else more. Overall I am still happy I got the 7th place overall in a competition with the best riders in the world like Ted Davenport and Chris Booth. I filmed my run with my helmet cam check it out guys.


While the challenge were going on, I lost a bet in playing darts....here is the result of the lost bet. :D


You guys have no idea how cold the water is here in the wintertime.....




Photos: Kai Stoeckel





Helmetcam run:

Video

Video edit from 2009.

Film Locations: B.C. Canada, Austria, Swiss Alps, French Alps, Italy, USA

Check it out!

Freeride Shots