Skiing in Heaven

The alpines are mountains that seem to be carved out of the bones of the earth. Imagine skiing on them.

On Friday, I found myself on a train bound for Kitzbühel with my hostel booked and my backpack packed with ski clothes. Dylan had put together a little ski trip and it was needed after the fail of Garmisch-Partenkirchen trip. Others on the trip included Matt, two Brasiliens, Vitor and Lara, and a Saudi Arabian, Aziz. We made up quite a motley crew varying 10 years in age and, as already stated, from around the globe. The train was pretty easy; our only transfer was in Wörgl, Österreich (Austria in English but I'm going to stick with German names). It was night, so we couldn't see much, unlike our train back.

We arrived in Kitzbühel, out destination, and a string of lights illuminating the gondola was the only evidence of any mountain. The walk to the Snowbunnies Hostel took only a few minutes but we didn't really know where to go so I stopped in a hotel and asked where it was. She said in german, as she laughed, it's across the street above that clothing store. I looked over and saw a huge sign that read HOSTEL. At least we found it.

The hostel owner, Dave, was a BAMF (If you do not know the term it means Bada** Motherf*****). As we paid him the 45 Euro for our total two night's stay, he brought out some schnapps (any liquor or liqueur in German speaking countries is called schnapps). He asked me to pour some shots, and I gladly obliged. After paying we all did a shot and were shown our rooms. I stayed in a room with Dylan, 2 French guys, a guy from Essex county in England, and an unknown guy who only said "Morning" to us once. What we needed after we settled in was food. We asked where to get some good Austrian food and headed to Zinnkrug where we got our wish. At a table across the restaurant a group of old locals sang in HARMONY a richly ornamented version of Ein Prosit and then later another drinking song of which I do not know the name. That really started off the trip right. 

Dyland and I tried to get some sleep, but it was always interrupted by the orchestral snores of the 2 Frenchmen. I swear to god it was somehow in surround sound. While I was awake, I would track the tonal movement of each snore. One was always in F while the other was in a shaky A. That was all nice until the guy in A moved into some sort of semitonal range that made me awake even more. This analyzation may sound extreme, but you have a lot of time when you are awake and all you hear is constant snore. Dylan the next morning was making fun of how they had it times so that when one wasn't snoring the other would. I never did dislike the French......until now.

The next morning, we suited up, grabbed a quick breakfast, and headed over to rent skies, boots and a helmet (YES MOM, I SPENT 7 EURO FOR YOUR PEACE OF MIND!). It was a bit rainy at the bottom of the mountain, which only meant snow up top. The gondola ride up was pretty cool, but still a little too foggy.

It was the first time Lara, Vitor, and Aziz had ever gone skiing let alone the first time Lara has ever touched or seen snow. Dylan, Matt and I tried to teach them how and they learned fairly quickly. Aziz had a hard time simply because he didn't know how to stop. He eventually just said he couldn't go further and walked back to the gondola. However frustrated he was, he kept on smiling. That was pretty awesome. The first run was tough for anyone - narrow, full of steep slopes on one side, and crowded. Lara made it to the next stop, a restaurant where we had a beer, and remained there as Matt, Vitor and I kept going.

Dylan and I eventually took two runs on our own. Being from Park City, Dylan is a lot better than me. I would see him at the bottom of a run when I was ten feet down the mountain. The beer that we had definitely stopped any speed inhibitions I had, which allowed me to work on my form a bit. Those two runs we took started on a face with at least a foot of new powder. It was a nice change from the usual groomed German slopes. Dylan went off into a ravine and I went straight down. I kept waiting and waiting, but eventually he came after digging himself out of a small stream. Matt and Vitor joined us as we went up further. We explored the mountains more and Vitor was getting exponentially better as time went on. As we got up higher, the clouds broke just a little bit giving us some view of what was around. 

A lot better visibility than Garmisch



The clouds breaking at the top

On our way back down, Dylan and I went by to pick up Lara at the ski lodge. To make things faster, Dylan put Lara in front of him and he steered her around. The gondola ride down the mountian was much more scenic since the sun had broken through some of the clouds.



The town of Kitzbühel from the gondola

We met up with the rest of the people, got our skies returned and then started the apres ski. Starting at Pavillon bar, we sat down and had a drink to soothe our sore muscles.

apres ski, the best kind of ski?

After only one drink, we needed a little nap. We headed back to the hostel and I watched part of the Italy - Scotland Six Nations Rugby game. I slept during the England - Ireland game, then got up for the France - Wales game. During this time I got to know a bunch of other people at the hostel who eventually went out with us later. So it was our diverse crew with an Australian, an Englishman, a Kiwi, and another American added. We headed to Highways bar where it was Happy Hour. It was from this bar that my closed smelled of cigarettes the next day...it's still okay to smoke in bars in Österreich. After a few half priced drinks, we made our way to El Dorado, the cheapest bar in town. All around the bar were Western American license plates and pictures of old Ford and GMC trucks. I didn't expect a place like this in the middle of the Alps.

Before I went to bed, I checked out what was going on in Libya downstairs - I heard America had started shooting Tomahawks at certain anti-air targets. It's hard to be up to date on American news in Europe, but this was certainly being covered by all the stations.

I went to sleep not expecting to ski in the morning since our train was at 3:45, but after looking outside and Dylan putting some great peer pressure on me...I gave in. It was perfectly sunny outside with each mountain topped by a small cloud. I would have regretted not going. As I was getting ready, I realiyed I didnät have my wallet. I started freaking out because I have never lost my wallet or phone or anything of importance before. I eventually found it on the table in the lounge downstairs. There were a bunch of people in there and it was there all night. I love how honest people are in German speaking countries. We got our skies from the rental place again and met up with Andrew from the US and Sam from New Zealand. We skiied around the mountian, going further and further into the Alps and getting miles away from the town. It was an awesome day of skiing and here are some pictures of the heavenly mountains:



Sam and Dylan on our first run



We eventually took a tram to teh other side of the resort. It went across this huge valley



The further you went into the mountians the better the views got

We stopped at a lodge at the top of one o the highest peaks and got a beer

During our break, the clouds broke more and more

Panorama of the view from the top. The mountains don't stop



We needed to start making our way back so we took the tram

 Once on theother side, Sam and Andrew kept on skiing while Dylan and I made our way down. We had a choice - take the gondola all the way down like the day before....or ski all teh way down. We chose the latter. The pictures of the valley below were totally worth it. the ski run also ended in the middle of town, so it was extremely convenient to take our skis over to the shop.



Panorama of the valley. Kitzbühel is on the far far right.

 After that ski day, we got our stuff from the hostel, got a bite to eat at the Bratwurst stand in town and headed to the train. The journey back was somewhat of a bust. My travel plans included two connections each with only 7 minutes in between. I got into Munich 6 minutes before Dylan so he decided to go with my plans....wrong choice. Our second train ended up being 15 minutes late, which meant we wouldn't make our 2nd connection. We got off the train at a stop and waited for another train that was leaving for Munich in 10 minutes. Other people did the same. This train got into Munich eventually, but very late. We were only 15 mintues from Munich when our trains electric power started not working. Trains must switch from diesel to electric power once entering the city center to keep quiet. We waited an hour and a half in one spot then moved backwards to another. The train stopped there then the captain said we were going to go back to Rosenheim (where we were last) where busses were going to take us into Munich. This was all in German, so most of the time I didn't understand what was going on. When we got to Rosenheim, we didn't get busses but a new engine that worked. The train then booked it to Munich, arriving a total of almost 4 hours late.

I expected a lot more from the German train system than some crazy thing like this. At least I wasn't one of the people who missed a flight of a connecting train. At the peak of my disgruntleness, I whipped out a bottle of Malibu, which Dylan and I shared. I didn't really care anymore at that more. It might have been that a great day ended poorly but they couldn't take away the perfect day of skiing that we had (Dylan's words).

Once I got back to the Wohnheim, I ate a ton and just fell asleep. I woke up with a great smile on my face because I realized that the skiing was not a dream. I am now in my last week in Munich. I leave for Amsterdam over the weekend to see PB and Momo.

All pictures from the trip:

Kitzbühel

Things to do/visit before I leave:
Deutsches Museum
Night photography of Munich
Top of Old St. Peter's and take pics up there
Starkbierfest