Off-Piste Skiing Nesselwang

Out skiing today, and what a ski day it was.

Pip, Radford, Tom and his girlfriend Amy are over here for Rhiannons 18^th birthday and also decided to ski whilst the snow is still here. As Amy has never skied and I am a ski teacher I spent the morning skiing with her and teaching her how it is done. She grasped the concept fast for someone who has never stood on skies before and after just three hours we had her up to the Kronenhütte for some coffee after which she skied down. We also met Heidi and Herman in the Kronenhütte, enjoying the fresh snow from yesterday night.

After the drink I took Amy down where we met the rest. The girls, Chris and Philip went home for some lunch whilst Radford, Tom, Dad and me went up again. We lost Radford near to the beginning as we decided to go down the Grüne Strich and Radford stuck to the normal piste.

We had loads of fun in the afternoon, going through forests where no one had skied till then. Going through fresh snow and over tree stumps. Toms way better than what I remember. He just does not fall over any more and we spent the afternoon skiing down through forests and along snowed up valleys. We met a few people, but the bulk of them stayed at the bottom and the few that did come to the top of the Alpspitze stayed on the piste.

A super day and probably going to spend some more skiing time the next days as winter is luckily still present.

Rhiannons parts coming up and I am the grill chef, on the 28 of February!!

Sledging Ehrwald

Went out sledging with Wolfi, Franzi and Peter (a work colleague of Wolfi) in the evening. The ski piste in Ehrwald is closed for skiers on Tuesday and Friday and left open for sledging. Arrived there just shortly before the lift opened and where close to the front in getting in. The journey up always takes a while, but we got to the top and set of downhill after a few people had gone already. Peter and Franzi had never been there before, so Franzi tested the piste the first time by going a bit slower. Peter didn't mind that and shot down at 75 km/h on the first run. Small information beforehand, we didn't have the standard sledges with us, but a more race like version. Means these top speeds where possible. Next round he beat that again by another 5km/h. His top speed of the day: 80 km/h.

The piste deteriorated after a short while so it got a bit risky as sledges tend to cause waves like hills in the piste for some reason. Means if you don't pay attention you will fly. I did accidentally sledge in to another person and his shoulder didn't appreciate the contact with my knee. I had felt nearly nothing, but his arm was numb for a bit but got better after some moving around. Sledging was handled a bit more careful after that and we went home after another three runs down as the lift closed after that.

Got home wet and cold but got in to bed which was nice and warm.

Ski Touring Schattwald

Once again borrowed a touring ski set in Pfronten for the weekend. Maybe the last time for this winter as it is rather expensive and I need to save for Australia. I had agreed to go with Sebastian again, as he had a super tour planned for today and his gear was up to scratch again.

I got up to have some breakfast and there was a message from Daniel that he would like to come along, as well. So he got down mums touring skies and we adjusted them to fit to his ski boots. Took a while but we managed just in time as Sebastian pulled in to our drive. Set of towards Tannheimer Tal, as Nesselwang was drowning under clouds with no sun and there tends to be more sun over there. Arrived in Schattwald and went up the first section with the lift before we got to touring. Lovely view in to Tannheim with the clouds stuck over Germany in the background. Went up towards the Kühgundkopf and had the sun shining down on to us. It was warm most of the way. We have had minus degrees here for the past few days with a cold east wind blowing over. The surrounding mountains were protecting us from that most of the way but when we got near to the top it hit us again. Incredible temperature drop, but the trees where all nicely frozen over. Arrived at the cross after a load of picture stops and pointed turns and were greeted with a view over a sea of clouds. Had a short stop before we carried on along the ridge. Met an old associate of Wastl at the top, someone he had not seen for two years so that was a surprise.

We had some tee and food at the top in a wind protected are before the skins came off our skies and we went down. Down through nearly untouched snow, even if the sun had shone on it a bit, very difficult to describe that felling in words but “incredible” gets it rather well. Arrived at the bottom and got our furs back on for a short way up towards the Bschießer. Didn't go all the way and stopped not even half way up to go down the side. Had another small stop and then went down a super valley filled with snow. As it was in the shade for most of the day it was brilliant to ski down through and really long, too. Avalanche danger was a bit up for the day, so we were equipped with bleepers as well, but there were so many people up there with us it is hard to believe that it was that risky there. Down and down we went through un-pisted snow, jumping from curve to curve. Statement Dad: SHIT LIFE :D

Arrived back at the main piste and went up with one of the lifts before we headed down and took a dip in to a valley. Had to cross a river at the bottom, but that is were things get adventurous. Arrived at the bottom again and went up for something to drink and eat. Back down along another off piste part of the mountain, through a forest, where we saw a complete section of a hill had slid down about a meter. Arrived at the bottom back under the clouds and drove back to Nesselwang thinking of all the sun above us.

A track at GPSies from the car until to the hut we ate in and some pictures at Picasa from Sebastian and me.

Ski Touring Edelsberg

Have to take full advantage of my rented ski touring gear, as I have to give it back today. It was planned to go with mum today, but as she had an accident I went with someone else.

The ski school 50^th anniversary was yesterday and I had a long talk with Sebastian, a fellow ski teacher. He asked if he could tag along with mum and me and as mum didn't go in the end it was just me and him.

Met up at the bottom of the ski lift and took that right up to the top to get away from the piste as fast as possible. We started walking up towards the Edelsberg as a lot of others had done before us so we had a well prepared track to follow. Unfortunatly nearing the crossing between the Alpspitze and the Edelsberg his fur didn't stick to the bottom of the ski. In the end, after many failed attempts to correct it, he carried on without fur. A task which would have completely knackered me. We managed it to the top through a snowed up forest and had something to eat and some tee at the cross. The original plan was to continue over towards Jungholz and then carry on some way but due to the fur not sticking to Sebastian's ski we had to abort that idea. We skied back downhill through a bit of powder snow what hadn't been skied through jet and reached the bottom after loosing and finding a ski. Went over towards the Alpsitzhang and met Karin and Heti up there. Skied down towards Sportheim Böck, had something to drink and went down the Grüne Strich. Was so much fun we went up with the lift and then down another time. I really felt the work my legs had to put into skiing after that.

Carried on down the back to Bayerstetten and skied through the most powder in that day.

Took a lane down to Hanses house and said goodbye to Sebastian before taking the touring skies and heading home.

Some pictures at Picasa and a track at GPSies.

Just after bringing the touring skies back to the rental shop, Wolfi from Water Rescue wrote to me and asked if I wanted to go sledging with them. Thought about it and said yes and back I was again outside, this time in a blizzard which had just arrived. Walked up a ways, had some tee and then sledged down in a few centimetres of new snow.

I was surprised that they asked actually, as they just had finished swimming in the cold Danube for fun.