Above Mia Brookes hugs Anna Gasser after her win at the Red Bull Rail Yard. Photo: Simon van Hal / Red Bull Content Pool.
The first edition of Red Bull Rail Yard went down last weekend, March 31st to April 2nd, in Kühtai, Austria, only a short drive away from Innsbruck. We saw some of the jib elite of snowboarding show up and making the most of the unique park set up, with 15-year-old UK rider Mia Brookes and 23-year-old Canadian Frank Jobin taking home the win from the first-ever Red Bull Rail Yard.
“Riding with someone like Anna Gasser was pretty unbelievable for me. She is a big idol”
The Railgarden, was planned and developed by the Schneestern crew in collaboration with snowboarder Clemens Millauer: A unique park setup with numerous Slopestyle and street elements, among them wallrides, down rails, flat down rails, double kink rails, bowls, and elbow rails. Quite challenging to ride – also due to the sudden return of winter in Austria – but predestined for creative riding.
Starting off with the Open Qualifier on Friday – for rookies, amateurs, and pro riders – we saw Leon Gütl (GER) and Moritz Amsüss (AUT) crowned as winners of their respective heats. The top 10 moved on to the main event on Saturday that kicked off with the Closed Qualifier, where invited riders met the qualified ones. Again, Leon Gütl and Moritz Amsüss dominated and won their heats, while Alexis Roland moved into the finals as the best woman.
The action continued with the super finals. After the jam sessions in the previous heats, the 16 male and 8 female finalists went Head-to-Head in the finals: 16 down to 8 down to 4 down to 2 for the grande finale.
