European ski safari - St Anton Day 4

Well, it was an epic day. By the time Bruce and I got ourselves sorted out, and umming and ahhing over whether or not to sign up for the 'Powder Club' (the Arlberg ski schools guided off-piste group scheme), it was about 9:30 am. Incidentally, the booking service for the Arlberg Ski School is a complete mess. So we decided to cut our losses and get a 3-hour private lesson/guide for the morning, so that we'd find out where all the good off-piste was without getting lost/killing ourselves... as well as get some good hints whilst in the off-piste. I hadn't skied real powder since 1999, and Bruce since.. well....ever really!

After a few warm up runs in the powder to the skier left of the Zammermoose chair, we headed over for a run off the top of the Kappall Chair and then traversed across to Ski Route 33, finding some good tracks.

Then we headed up the Zammermoose again, and this time found some great fresh tracks to the skiers right. Our instructor/guide, Yves from Belguim, also turned out to be a great cameraman as well, and he took some great footage of Bruce and I getting thigh deep powder.

The ski out back to the Ski Route 1 Home trail involved a nice section through the trees.



These shots, taken from the top of the Gampen chair, looking across to the Zammermoose chair, shows the area where we spent most of the day.



Some of our handi-work!



In the afternoon Lorenz joined us after catching the train that morning from Munich. Now armed with his famous Canon 350D with 70-200mm L glass zoom lense, it was time to take some fantastic action shots to add to the video footage.



Then we headed up the Schilder Spitze to get some freshies on some avalance debris to the skiers left of Ski route 15.



We still found some good snow below Ski Route 15, heading into Ski Route 4, even though it was fairly late in the day by now.













We then returned to our hunting ground earlier in the day to get our serving of sweet sweet powder.

European ski safari - St Anton Day 3

Blizzard! I woke up to see grey skies, high winds and zero visibility throughout the entire mountain. It started to rain down in the village, but we could see that snow was accumulating in the trees a few hundred metres up from the valley.

By about 9:00 am it was snowing hard in the village as well. As I was still fighting to fully get over a bout of man-flu, I decided to save my strength for another day and pull a sickie.

After a good morning's rest, I got up after lunch to have a look around.





By nightfall, the snow had stopped and the skies had cleared. Tomorrow was looking very promising indeed!

European ski safari - St Anton Day 2

Another day began bright and sunny. Bruce again had troubles with his boots so Nat and I continued to ski the Osthang area and St Christoph.

We stopped off for a quick pit-stop at the top of Galzig.



Nat had a massage booked in for the afternoon, so Bruce (now in hire boots) and I headed up the Schindler Spitze to tackle the high alpine runs.



We then tackled a run from the top of the Schindler Spitze (2660 metres) all the way to Stuben (1407 metres), that's a vertical of almost 1.3 kilometers. The run was wide, groomed and went straight down the fall-line... a perfect run for high-speed carving fun!





We finished the day in the best way possible. Firstly, by having a beer at the famous Krazy Kangaru bar, situated about 200 metres above the village on the main home trail. People have been known to dance the night away while still wearing there ski boots. The problem then is to ski back to the village after having been drinking solidly since 3 pm. St Anton is quite legendary for its Apres-ski, and its not uncommon to see people walking through the village at 11 pm still in their ski gear.



Bruce and I were sensible and we only had a beer each. We then returned to pick Lucas up from creche and take him to the playground in the St Anton village.

European ski safari - St Anton Day 1

Day One at St Anton began very bright and sunny. Temps were low to begin with, but things warmed up quickly in the afternoon. Great weather to get to know our way around.



We took things easy today, and Nat, Bruce and I took it easy on some of the big wide cruisers near Galzig and St Christoph.



As the afternoon progressed, the sun and skier traffic (it was a Sunday remember) took their toll. The ski back to the village on Ski Route 4 began to resemble Slalom Gully at Mounth Hotham... i.e. half the mountain's skiers being funnelled through a narrow gully covered in hard pack snow mixed with re-frozed slush... not much fun.



The St Anton village area is very small and cozy, a very different feel to a 'mega resort' such as Whistler. We were staying at the hotel Goldenes Kreuz, situated along the main road between the village and the Nasserain area. It was a five minute walk from the main village area, and about 10 minutes from the Galzigbahn gondola.



Lucas enjoyed his first day of creche. He gave us with a smile and a wave as we left him in the morning, and was happy to see us when we returned.

European ski safari - Innsbruck

So we all trekked out to Gatwick in January (itself no small feat due to an erratic starter-motor fault on our car) to fly out to Innsbruck. The flight into Innsbruck is one of the most spectacular I have ever experiences, as you descend into the city surrounded by the 3000 metre peaks of the Tyrolean Alps. The sun was shining, and you could actually see people skiing in the nearby mountains... almost enough to ask the pilot if he could just drop down a bit and let you off at the next gondola thanks.

We were staying in the picturesque Old Town, at a famous old Hotel where Mozart once stayed, the Goldener Adler. It is still famous enough that tourists were peering through the window while we were having dinner. Old Town in Innsbruck is lovely, especially when you can get streetside gluwien for two euros a pop...hoorah! There were lots of Japanese and Korean tourists in the area, so that when a few lovely Korean ladies set eyes on Lucas toddling around the cobblestone streets, it was love at first sight. They took lots of photos with him and gave him a few kisses and cuddles. I can't believe he's already pulling hot Korean ladies before he's even two. I'll try not to be jealous.


























The next day we travelled to the famous Innsbruck ski-jump. The jump itself has to be seen to be believed, and the landing zone is almost a 45 degree angle.. far steeper in real life than what you see on TV. Unfortunately fog obscured the city for most of the day, apparently you can get a great view of the cemetary from the take-off point on the ski-jump, which must be a sobering thought for the competitors!





Lucas really enjoyed sucking on Bruce's 'Camel Pack', which is a portable water bladder that you store in a back-pack. Maybe because it reminded him of breast-feeding? Whatever the reason, it often came to our rescue when Lucas began the chuck a nah-nah.







Innsbruck is probably the most beautiful city I have ever visited. Definitely a place I wouldn't mind living in at some point in the future! We caught the afternoon train to St Anton, which took just over an hour to complete. Now it was time to strap on the skis and get busy!