At Aberdeen University we have three weeks of holiday over Christmas, so I decided to make the most of mine, and spent all of it skiing in Austria with Trixi, with only a brief stop overnight at home on the way down. Gotta get the snowtime in somehow!
My journey out proved rather eventful. With 20cms of snow predicted in London, allthough the drive down wasn’t quite as bad as expected, my flight from Gatwick was, suprise suprise, delayed. Luckily I managed to get another out the next day, after crashing in a nearby hotel for the night.
Ski Touring, photo by Trixi Loeschenberger
To start the holidays off we had a few days skiing around Innsbruck. We spent most of the time up Nordkette (the area just next to Trixi’s flat), with one day at Igls, which I hadn’t been to for years. I tried ski touring for the first time, with my new Marker Baron bindings. Hard work (especially as I have a pretty heavy set up with my Big Troubles), but I think it will come in very useful later on for accessing better offpiste lines. We didn’t have any new snow while we were there, but on one warmer day the old snow softened up a bit, and offered some good sport offpiste at Nordkette.
Me at Nordkette, photo by Trixi Loeschenberger
When Trixi headed home for a few days over Christmas, I went on to Saalbach, where we were going to work for a week with the Furstauer Ski School to get some much needed money. On the night I arrived the Thurm bar was hosting a ‘start-of-the-season party’ for many of the resort workers, which was a great way to catch up with friends from last season, many of whom were back either for the season or just for a few weeks over Christmas.
For the first few days before starting work I was able to just ski aorund, re-familiarising myself with the area. Conditions weren’t ideal to start with, with warm temperatures and patchy snow. On two days it rained down at resort level, which luckily brought some fresh snow up top, and I had fun playing on the Schattberg. The second time it rained/snowed was Christmas day, and I had an awesome Christmas present in the form of fresh knee deep powder on Bernkogel, which was better than I expected! The chairlift up to the top for repeat runs wasn’t so enjoyable in the blizzard though, it takes so long! I’m looking forward to when the new gondola gets built there next season! The snow came just in time, as Trixi arrived on Boxing Day.
Furstauer ski instructors on New Years Eve, photo: Erick de Boer
New Years Eve was excellent. All the ski and snowboard instructors in Saalbach got together to do a (flaming) torch lit descent by the Turm lift for the punters (I’ve got wax all over my skis now), followed by fireworks and free beer. After a few drinks later on in Bobby’s we headed back to the slopes for the 12 o’clock countdown. Absolute mayhem – muchos champagne, and hundreds of people armed with fireworks made for a fun (if a little scary) time. Obviously, the night finished in Castellos’s!
Me enjoying the powder, Photo by Trixi Loeschenberger
Rather conveniently my group were too hungover to ski on New Years Day, so I had the day off to go skiing in the bluebird sunshine! Myself, Trixi, Jonas and Sina headed over to Hinterglemm for the day, which was our last in Saalbach (this time!). Getting up early the following morning it soon became clear that it had absolutely dumped it down overnight, so we found time to squeeze in one quick powder run down the side of Bernkogel before leaving to visit Trixi’s Aunt, Uncle, Mum and Dad at her Grandfather’s, near Salzburg. Absolutely beautiful, so we went for a long walk round his land in the snow.
Trixi's Grandfather's farmhouse
We left the day afterto go back to Innsbruck, as Trixi’s university term started again. Whilst she was out during the day, I went skiing at Nordkette, which is a great little playground, with some excellent offpiste. I skied my first ‘no fall zone’ (where to fall would put your life in serious danger) – an extremely steep and narrow couloir, which I did solo! Although I was quite nervous dropping in, I skied it ok and came out the bottom safely.
At the top of Nordkette, with a significant drop down to Innsbruck behind me - that's where I skied the 'no fall zone.' Photo by Trixi Loeschenberger
On my last day of the holidays we headed over to Ischgl to ski something that wasn’t Nordkette for a change! I’d been to Ischgl about two years before, so I took Trixi down the ‘Smuggler’s Run’ to Samnaun in Switzerland for lunch at an excellent restaurant. Although the light was a bit flat we had a good day, Ischgl is a cool resort.
Trixi about to ski over to Switzerland
Now I’m back in Aberdeen in the middle of my exams, so wish me luck! I managed a fun revision break the other day with the Uni Canoe Club, with a paddle down a very low and very cold South Esk. I think I may have to invest in a pair of neoprene pogies soon, to keep my hands warm!
