Christine in Zauchensee, Austria

The best place to celebrate your winter birthday is skiing.  In the Alps.  I went back to Austria.  No castles though.   But there was a world cup run.  And I raced the Canadian.  I killed it.  And then I waited for the last portion of the hill for him.  And waited.  When he showed up, we started over and I killed it again.  I love skiing.  And winning.  As a reward, I received a "Bester Skifahrer" (Best Skier) metal.

Tram to top of World Cup Run (not open).

Bottom of World Cup Run.

Lots of people turned up Saturday to ski.  But magically, it snowed on Sunday and hardly anyone showed up.  (For the record, I don't get this at all.  I mean, it has not snowed much at all in Europe.  And the mountains barely have any snow.  So snow is a good thing.  Go ski people.)

Lunch time.  

Deer stand (I believe) on the side of a run.

Zauchensee also has a decent number of black runs.  So I had a few challenging runs.  Which I loved.

And a little church on the road.

Christine

Christine in Chamonix, France

The 3rd time is the charm.  Yes, I managed to ski this wonderful area three times in 3 years.  Not bad at all.  This visit I loved the glacier, Glacier des Rognons, at the Grands Montets (3275 m or 10,744 feet).   To put this in proportion for you all following at home, the bottom of the mountain is 1252 m or 4107 feet.  ~Yes there can be a lot of elevation change in the Alps.  Right down the road between mountain peaks.  The mid station, where the first gondola ends is at 1972 m (6449 feet).

Chamonix, from the top of the glacier.

Warning.  Watch where you ski...

I worked up the courage to ski out of bounds a little (well, I was next to the boundary ropes--this counts).  And up there I saw my first up close and personal avalanche.  You actually hear the snow falling before you see it.  Like a loud boom.  Then you think is that an avalanche?  You look in the direction you heard the noise.  Then you see an avalanche closer than you ever want to see one.  Even if it is not that close.  It's close enough.  Not great picture conditions at the mountain.

Some skiers on the glacier.  Once again, all white and no perspective.  The little black dots above are also people.

I can't remember where this is from.  

Lots of powder for this trip.  I am much better at skiing in it now.  But not nearly enough snow.  I commented to my friends that the gates to the chair lifts seem higher this year.  They said it was because the snow pack is just not there.  [DC received all the snow this year.  Evil.  And you all don't even appreciate it.]

I skied a great black run on Brevent Flegere at Le Brevent (2525 m or 8284 feet).  You have to ride a separate gondola to get up there.  Still not a fan of gondolas.  But I ride them just the same.

Dinners consisted of wonderful French food to include fois gras and steak.  Steak was amazing.  Better than the blackberry pic shows.

Christine
(I'm a little behind posting.  This is from Martin Luther King Weekend.)

Christine in Zermatt, Switzerland

It's that wonderful time of year again--ski season!  And I finally saw the Matterhorn.  It is the mountain summit between Switzerland and Italia, at 4,478 meters (14,691 feet).  It is one of the highest peaks in the Alps.  The Matterhorn has a pyramid shape to it.  You may be familiar with it because it is on the Toblerone candy.  Yes, it is on the wrapper.  It is breathtakingly beautiful.  There is a Klein Matterhorn  across from the Matterhorn, but I didn't take a picture of it.  (I am working on my photography skills.  This is with my point and shoot camera not the fancy one.)

Matterhorn from Zermatt, Switzerland.

Matterhorn from the Italia side.

Matterhorn from the slopes, Switzerland.

You ski on a glacier.  And can visit both the Swiss and Italian Alps.  I recommend eating on the Italian side.  Not only is the food amazing, but it is cheaper.  The runs are fun and there are cable cars to connect both sides.  Though if the winds are too much, there is a T-bar from the Swiss side to the Italian side.  It is a long ride.  Ask me how I know.  But worth it.

What better way to spend Thanksgiving then on the slopes.  The Europeans try to do an American Thanksgiving.  But it is just not the same.  Something is always a little off.  Not bad, but not like home. Overall, the food at the hotel was quite good.  (You eat your breakfast and dinner at the hotel and lunch on the mountain.)  And the hotel was like 20 feet from the gondola.  Can't beat that.  At all.  Wake up, eat, and then a simple commute.

 And Switzerland has wonderful fondue.  You have to eat fondue if you visit.  I went with the group I skied with for lunch one day.

Zermatt is a wonderful town.  That you take a train to get too.  Since they do not allow gas vehicles of any time up there.  Only electric cars.  Kinda like golf carts on steroids.

And the church, with a unique fountain in the foreground:

Christine

Christine at Garmisch, Germany

Garmisch, Germany hosted the Women's Ski Weltcup (World Cup).  If you recall, I attended the Women's Fussball (Soccer) Weltcup in June 2011.  So I decided to attend another world cup.  Why didn't I think of going to a ski world cup earlier?  You can watch the race from the slopes or the finish line.  The downhill ran the first day.  I watched from the slopes.  For 2 skiers.   Cause they finish in about 45 minutes.  And I was on the other side of the mountain enjoying skiing.   The Super G ran on day 2.  This time, I went to the finish line to watch the skiers.  The racers tuck the entire time they ski practically.  I think I missed my racing days.  There is no way I could do that.  I watched about 15 of them finish the race.  Then I took the gondola up the hill and skied some.  I also watched a bit of the race from the slopes.

Downhill from the Gondola (men's course is the lighter lines)

The Super G race (there's a reason I'm wasn't a film major):

The Super G course does not start at the top of the mountain.  Which meant I could ski the women's downhill for part of the way.  Such a fun run!!!  I loved skiing and would have all day.  And it is steep. Interstingly, Garmisch has 2 black runs.  Really, they are the only runs worth doing.  One of the black runs was closed for the World Cup.  So, if you are a beginner, you would love it here.  If not, keep driving to Austria.

Interestingly, on day one, it was sunny on top of the mountain.  And cloudy on the lower half.  I skied through the clouds at one point.  Clouds are cold when skiing in/through.  Something I just learned.

BMW sponsored a race course.   The course was connected to your ski pass.  After the jump is a video of me skiing.

Christine

Christine in Kitzbuhel, Austria (Again)

I won the world cup race in Kitsbuhel!  Well, in my mind I totally did anyway.  Kitsbuhel has a very famous, very tough, world cup ski run.  The winners of the race have a Hahnenkammbahn (gondola) car named after them.  For example, I saw Bode Miller's gondola.  Mostly Austrians and Swiss have won the race though.  This visit I actually skied the run.  Well, some of it.  There were parts that they do not groom ever, which led to huge snow mounds with sheets of ice around them.  That did not look like a good idea.  

Kitsbuhel has a lot of mountain to ski, which made it ideal for a long, holiday weekend.  And the 2 peaks are connected by a gondola.  

I did not make the hotel arrangements.  Because it would not occur to me to stay in a Schloss (castle).  That has a chapel on site.  Or a witch Keller (cellar).  They dropped the witches through a trap door in the ceiling.  But they set up the room so if the witch survived the fall, she would not touch the floor.  They believed witches got their powers back if they touched the floor.  

This 12th century castle did have 2 fires.  And was at one point a youth hostel, for a church.  Now it is a lovely hotel.  The only down side-stairs.  Lots of stairs to walk, which is fine when you feel normal.  Not so great when you are sick.  As I picked up my key, I mentioned to the front desk I did not feel well.  The hotel brought me tee (tea) to help me feel better.  Then they charged me for it.  Not sure about that part.  

Ceiling in original room

Chapel

Witch Keller, trap door

In the future, I may try to stay in castles.  It was that fun.  

Christine

Christine in Chamonix, France Take 2

Chamonix, France is wonderful.  It's around 6 or 6 1/2 hours away from Stuttgart, Germany.  You can travel over the mountain pass, save some time, or around Geneva, Switzerland.  On the way, we went over the mountain pass and the return trip took us through Geneva.

Brevent

There was 3 days of sunny weather and on the last day, a storm rolled in.  This trip, I skied Brevent (1st day), Flegere (3rd day), and Grands Montets (2nd and 4th days).  I love skiing in the sun.  It doesn't seem as cold.  Chamonix is nice because it actually has some harder runs, i.e. decent black runs.

I arrived at Flegere at 0900.  If you are a skier, this means first tracks.  These were some of my favorite runs of the trip.  You can fly down groomed slopes.  The snow was so soft, not the crunchy stuff.  You just go and go.  No reason to stop.  Except that others eventually started skiing the slopes.  And then there are no fresh tracks.  Cause everything is skied.  Not that I can actually blame anyone for this.

View from Grands Montets

Skiing on the glacier

Grands Montets has a glacier at the top of the mountain.  You have to take a 2nd gondola to get to the top.  A full of people, like 40 of your closest friends, gondola.  I skied the glacier on the last day.  You know, the day it was snowing and gray out.  So no amazing view pictures.  But I will try to go back for you all.  It's the least I can do.  It is 3275 m (10,700 feet) up to the glacier.  The snow was incredible up there.  Once you got to it.  You had to walk a million steps down from the gondola to the snow.  Or maybe it was 200 steel steps.  It was a lot.  And it's not like you can close your eyes and count backwards from 100, by 7, to pass the time.  You have to walk them all.  The hardest part.  After riding the gondola up.  The powder was over knee deep.  I only fell 3 or maybe 4 times.  The first time about 30 feet from the start of the run.  Not too bad, since I haven't had the opportunity to ski as much in powder.  I stayed on the marked trail.  The guy I was skiing with went out of bounds and seemed happy.  Yeah, he is braver than me.  It's ok though, cause there were other people skiing the glacier and I stayed near them.  It is 1300 m (4265 feet) to the lifts and 2500 m (8202 feet) to the bottom of the mountain, where the bus takes you back to town.  And it is a decent beginner intermediate run to the bottom.  I didn't ski the glacier to bus run all at once, but over the course of the day, I did go from top to bottom.

If you don't go for the skiing, go to France for the food.  And wine.  Well, I would have liked more scallops, delicious sauce, but I enjoyed the mushroom risotto, even if it is peasant food mom.

Christine

Christine in Lech, Austria

It's that time of year again.  When we all go skiing and hang outdoors and enjoy the fresh air.  And fly down mountains.  My second trip of this ski season had me visiting Lech, Austria.  I went with the Patch ski club.  The group skews a bit older.  Which means less partying and better accommodations.  Life is all about the trade-offs.  It snowed each morning we were there.  This meant not so great visibility in the mornings.  But the afternoons had lovely, sunny weather.  I'll take fresh snow and sun when I can.

This is an expensive town.  I know that because I heard royals vacation there.  I didn't hear which royals vacation there.  But to be fair, I could walk by the Queen of England and probably not recognize her.  Or her grandsons.  So there is that.  Maybe if they had signs.

The mountains:

I skied Der Weisse Ring (The White Ring).  It is a route that connects Lech, Zurs, Zug, and Oberlech.  It is 22km (13.6 miles) of skiing.   It took a couple of hours to do.  But led me to one of my favorite restaurants (and it was not the food that made it my favorite--hard, very hard, to believe).

We stopped and ate goulash on the mountain.  It was tasty, but not the best thing at the restaurant.  Most trees have trains under them.  On the mountain, you get a ski lift, complete with cut out people under the tree.  Best. Decoration. Ever.

The pretty little church:

Christine

Christine at Hintertux, Austria Take II.

Once again I spent Thanksgiving on the glaciers of Austria.  It's wonderful to ski before your turkey dinner.  The Austrian's like fireworks.

The skiing was as good as could be expected.  For the end of November.  One of the Germans asked me why I was skiing in Austria.  I said because there's snow.  And laughed.  He said he couldn't wait for January and his trip to the Rockies.  I agreed.  Some of the best skiing is in the Rockies.  However, the best skiing is where there is snow and you can make the trip.

And the mountains were beautiful as well.  The sun setting over the mountains.

Christine

Christine in Kronplatz, Italy

I love Italy.  Gelato.  My favorite word.  And one of my favorite foods.

I also love pizza, risotto, spaghetti, gnocchi, prosciutto, mozzarella, and everything else.  But not espresso.  I just can't bring myself to drink coffee.  Yes, I am the only adult that feels this way.  Oh well.

And now my next favorite topic:  skiing!  Sunny skies for the first 2 days of skiing.  If you can't have powder, sun is the next best thing.  I did a 7km, about 4.3 miles, run (it was number 16).  I'm not sure it was that long, but the trail map says so.  I'll take their word for it.  The mountain had black runs, that were actually open.  A couple were pretty steep.  Something I have not experienced over here.  I enjoyed the runs.  This resort actually reinvested in the mountain.  It mostly used gondolas to move people.  It had 2 gondolas up to the top of the mountain.  No lines to begin skiing.  Loved that.  Also, it had an indoor storage area, so you could rent a locker and leave your skis and gear overnight.  What a brilliant idea.  Way to take care of the little people.

The pictures of the mountains look fake.  But they are that beautiful.

My World Cup downhill run (the large white area on the left):

The hotel was by a castle, which I crossed this wiry looking bridge to visit.  But the thing did not move.  As I ran as fast as I was willing over a snowy/icy bridge.

And a church:

Christine