New world record!

Morgenstern & Gabalier “blow” through Lapland

Friends and patrons of brass music - with a difference! With selected leaf blowers in their luggage, folk rock'n'roller Andreas Gabalier and three-time Olympic champion Thomas Morgenstern set off for Lapland to set what is probably the most bizarre world record of the year ...

A perfectly normal Tuesday morning in Arjeplog in northern Sweden ... Former ski jumping star Thomas Morgenstern raced down a specially prepared slope at an incredible 74 km/h on Tuesday. Powered solely by a total of twelve Einhell leaf blowers, combined into a so-called Rocketsuit.

A Styrian Rocky
What sounds like a winter mirage was actually the amusing idea of Andreas Gabalier and skiing ace Nicole Schmidhofer (although she had to be replaced by fellow athlete Morgenstern at short notice). They wanted to set a new speed record and did so - at least Morgenstern did!

Gabalier, still suffering from a recent ice hockey injury to his knee, "only" managed 57 kilometers per hour and three spectacular falls at full speed. However, he survived these well secured and quoted Rocky Balboa afterwards: "The winner is not the one who wins, but the one who keeps getting up!" ...

With a reward from the very top
There was no competition between the two top dogs, even though they were not familiar with each other beforehand. Nevertheless, it was quickly "like love at first sight, two Schmäh brothers".

"It was one of the craziest adventures of my life - and also one of the most difficult: just lifting the 37 kilogram 'Rocketsuit' and staying on track on skates with the surprisingly powerful leaf blower drive was a real challenge. But in the end you can say: Andreas and I rocked it together!" says Thomas Morgenstern.

At the end of the trip, the entire group was once again rewarded by Mother Hulda with a very special natural spectacle. As the world record party kicked off on the shores of the 250-square-kilometer Lake Uddjaure, the Northern Lights appeared in the sky.

A very special moment for Gabalier: "That was on my bucket list. It makes you realize what a small cog you are in this gigantic universe."