Cody Townsend

It has been an interesting week here in St. Anton.

  The start of the week saw the O’Neill Big Mountain Pro come through town.  The contest takes 6 of the worlds best snowboarders, Jeremy Jones, Mitch Toelderer, Xavier de la Rue, Fredrik Evensen, Thomas Eberharter, Eric Themel and 6 of the worlds best skiers, Cody Townsend, Loris Falquet, Thomas Diet, Richard Permin, Jeremie Heitz, Arnaud Rougier and puts them to work on various faces throughout the Alps for prize purse of US$60,000. The interesting thing about this contest is the fact the it is a movable contest and travels to wherever the snow may be and the conditions are best. This year the contest travelled between St. Anton and Saalbach further to the east.

I managed to catch the first run in St. Christoph. The face that the organisers chose had some good conditions though I would consider it to be an unusual choice for a competition with the words big mountain in the title. The face is around 100m vertical. Short though it may be the face provided numerous drops and hucks for the riders to hit and some good snow.

The contest has moved off towards the East where they have found some nice powder. I have heard that they may be returning here for another session this week which will be great as we have just had some fresh snow. Hopefully I shall get another chance to shoot with these talented riders.