As UK temperatures start to drop, thoughts of the next snow trip naturally drift to mind! Despite any enthusiasm for the coming season’s snow-sports fun, dusting off last year’s kit and ideas of reaching new heights on our skis or snowboard can bring the realisation that we have some serious “snow prep” to organise!
Prepping for the winter snow season is something Olympic snowboarder Aimee Fuller knows all about! Following her performance in Sochi 2014’s Winter Olympics, the 23-year-old is about to begin another jam-packed season of competitions and winter training to keep her at the top of her game.
Kicking off the season in Austria to get her “shred legs on”, professional snowboarder Aimee spends most of her “pre-season” (October and November) between Stubai and Hintertux, making the most of the glaciers, where you will find plenty of snow, long before most resorts are open!
Packing in early training sessions in the Austrian freestyle parks is vital to Aimee Fuller’s preparation for competitions such as Dew Tour in the US or Pleasure Jam on the Dachstein Glacier in November, where Aimee will compete against other winter athletes with a “snow load” of practised snowboard tricks up her sleeve.
But it’s not just the professionals who can benefit from a little “snow prep” to stay at the top of their game. Aimee gave us her thoughts on prepping for a winter on the snow!
“When I am home during the summer, I’m putting some hours in at the gym and getting out on the push bike. For me, one of the more difficult aspects of freestyle snowboarding is performing tricks on rails! The Snow Centre, Hemel Hempstead has such a good park layout on Thursday and Friday Freestyle nights and you can get so many laps in; so I plan to head there pre-season to spend a couple of days hot lapping a good setup and dialling in some new rail tricks.
Also, riding all year round is good for keeping your snow legs going, so when you head out to the mountains your legs don’t go into shock and you can really make the most of your trip! No matter what you do in the gym, nothing beats just getting on your board and achieving the slope miles on your legs!
My advice: get up to The Snow Centre and rip a few laps – there’s such a good crew and vibe down there and you can get your rail game on, so when you head out to the mountains you can attack those trickier features!”
