<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On 16 and 17 December 2023, the Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY hosted by Blue Tomato kicked off its 11th season in glorious sunshine with the first tour stop in the Hochzillertal-Kaltenbach ski region. The opening event of the popular Ästhetiker Snowboard Tour attracted over a hundred participants from all over Europe to travel to the first holiday region in the Zillertal. With its unique combination of snowboard freestyle coaching, style sessions and internationally recognised snowboard slopestyle competitions, the VÄLLEY RÄLLEY has established as an important tour for young snowboarders. Today it represents a springboard for up-and-coming talents into international professional sport.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What a start to the season! It couldn't have been better! Just in time for the 1st Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY tour stop 2023/2024 hosted by Blue Tomato, the Betterpark Hochzillertal was glowing with a first-class freestyle setup in bright sunshine. Over 100 participants had travelled from all over Europe to the first holiday region in the Zillertal to participate in this season´s first VÄLLEY RÄLLEY event of the popular snowboard tour. The conditions on Saturday were perfect and many participants took the opportunity to practise for the competition. In addition, the Ästhetiker Style Session was held for the first time. The main focus of this new session formate was mainly more on "style" and less on “spin to win.” At the end of the day, <strong>Jascha Nunez</strong> from Austria was delighted to receive the Ästhetiker Style Award.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Sunday, international teams finally put on a snowboard show of superlatives in the battle for the first podium spots of the open snowboard slopestyle competition. Lots of medals, prize money and goodies from partners like Zillertal.at, Blue Tomato, Horsefeathers and from Lowe Alpine and Rab Equipment awaited the winners of the eight categories. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Fynn Koenen</strong> from Team Germany caused quite a stir with his "BS 1260 K-Point" and not only secured the much-coveted Horsefeathers Best Trick Award, but also the gold medal as the best snowboarder of the entire competition of all male participants. In the ladies' category, the reigning Queen of the Zillertal VÄLLEY, <strong>Laura Záveská</strong> from the Czech Republic, remained unbeaten and took a well-deserved victory in her age group "Rookie Girls" (16-17 years) as well as in the open competition for all female riders with plenty of style and airtime. In the rookie boys' category, high-flyer <strong>Lenny Fenning</strong> from Great Britain was delighted to take first place. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Dmytro Luchkin</strong> from Ukraine not only won the gold medal in the Grom Boys (13-15 years), he also came third overall in the Open Class and shook the hand of runner-up <strong>Petr Ershov</strong> from Russia on the podium. The Belgian <strong>Sky Remans</strong> secured a well-deserved first place in the Grom Girls (13-15 years). In the youngest category, brothers <strong>Gustav</strong> and <strong>Ricco Nawarkiewicz-Wisniewski</strong> from Poland took home gold and silver medals in the Super Grom Boys (U12 years), while <strong>Adèle Vankerschaver</strong> from Portugal won the Super Grom Girls contest. 5-year-old newcomer out of the Shredmasters team, <strong>Ben Huang</strong> impressed all spectators and participants with his solid first ever competition performance and was crowned the "most impressive grom" of the 1st tour stop by the Ästhetiker. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Martha Schultz</strong> from the Hochzillertal-Kaltenbach ski centre is delighted with the successful kick-off event: "Thanks to the Ästhetiker team! They are professionals at work! Events of this kind are very important for winter sports and for our kids and young people - they convey fun in the great outdoors and the young people measure their skills together."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first of four contest results marked the start of the hunt for new VÄLLEY RÄLLEY points in the Hochzillertal-Kaltenbach ski region. The overall tour winners will be crowned the 11th Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY royal family in spring 2024 on Hintertux Glacier. Points on the international World Snowboard Point List (WSPL) were also awarded for participation and the tour stop counts as the ASA (Austrian Snowboard Association) Austria Cup. All under-18s collected points in the World Rookie Ranking at Betterpark Hochzillertal and can therefore qualify for the World Rookie Tour Finals. Find out more at <a href="http://www.powdern.com" target="_blank">http://www.powdern.com</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All remaining Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY dates 2023/2024 at a glance:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2nd tour stop 20-21 January 2024 Zillertal Arena </div><div style="text-align: justify;">3rd tour stop 09-10 March 2024 Penken Park Mayrhofen, Mayrhofen-Hippach in Zillertal </div><div style="text-align: justify;">4th tour stop 27-28 April 2024 Hintertux Glacier, Betterpark Hintertux, Tux-Finkenberg</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Ästhetiker thank the partners of Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY for their support: </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zillertal Tourismus, Skiregion Hochzillertal-Kaltenbach, Erste Ferienregion im Zillertal Tourismus, Blue Tomato, Red Bull, Horsefeathers, Dana Beanies, Betterparks</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Special thanks to the co-operation partners:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">World Snowboard Federation (WSF), Austrian Snowboard Federation (ASA), World Rookie Tour (WRT)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The complete list of results, photo and video galleries can be found at <a href="http://www.valleyralley.at/" target="_blank">www.valleyralley.at</a></div><div><br /></div><div>More info at <a href="http://www.valleyralley.at/" target="_blank">www.valleyralley.at</a> and <a href="https://www.zillertal.at/info/urlaubsinfo/veranstaltungen/zillertal-vaelley-raelley.html" target="_blank">www.zillertal.at/valleyralley</a></div>