Intro:

The Austrian alpine season gets underway with the 29th edition of the Kaunertal glacier festival (11th October).

Script:

Ski and snowboard enthusiasts have had a long wait, but winter finally arrived in Austria over the weekend and the 29th edition of the Kaunertal Opening took place in the renowned Tyrol region in Austria.

Every year for almost three decades now, elite athletes from around the world gather to celebrate the start of the wintersport season.

Freestyle skiers tackled a course at the Kaunertal snow park, which included kickers and a series of rails.

17 year-old Swiss skier Fabian Boesch, who finished 23rd in the slopestyle competition at the Sochi Winter Olympics, took third place.

Gernamy's Lisa Zimmermann, who claimed the first World Cup slopestyle win of her career at Gstaad in Switzerland back in January, took first place among the women.

Tonteri won the gold medals in slopestyle and big air at the 2013 Snowboarding World Championships in Canada.

Kalle Ohlson from Sweden dug deep into his bag of tricks to secure second place, but first went to another American, Eric Beauchemin.

Bauchemin was fourth in the slopestyle competition at the Oslo World Championships in 2012 and has had five starts on the World Cup tour, claiming two top-ten finishes.

Across the board all seemed delighted at the beginning of the ski season, even if October does seem to be jumping the gun.