Austrian Life Part II

The first two weeks of our Austrian Adventure were eventful as we dug into getting a more intimate knowledge of one nice zone in lieu of three months of constant movement, which was a nice change and the experiences and scouting set us up nicely for continuing to do so for the rest of the two-months in Austria.  The next two weeks have fortunately been full of plenty more fun adventures!  

When we realized that we’d be in Austria a couple of hours away from the famed Hahnennkamm downhill in Kitzbuhel not long after we arrived, we had to go.  Like the women’s world cup slalom in Flachau, watching world cup ski racing in ski-crazy Austria is An Event Not To Be Missed, but the Hahnennkamm race is another level of intensity.   For us, however, going to see the race had another huge added bonus; we were able to connect with my old pal Roddy Darcy and his lovely family who live a veritable ski jump away from Kitzbuehl.   Though the downhill sold out early – for the first time ever – they always have a superG the day prior that’s on the same course with almost the same speeds (they start a little lower, and the turns are a bit tighter) it was practically the same thing, and though we theoretically wanted the ski racing-spectating experience, the prospect of an estimated 45,000 people crowding around the finish of the downhill  – three or four times the size of the Flachau crowd – was pretty daunting, so we were fine with the SuperG.  And it was great: the faves did well, as did the Americans, we saw the greatest recovery move ever in real time, the fans had plenty to drink and were rabid, we had good views, etc. 

And indeed, we got some great quality time with Roddy, Katlyn, and Elva (not pictured; I think she was at biathlon practice!).  

We used a bit of an eastward trip to justify going to Salzburg, a very approachable “big” city with a storied history (“Salz” is German for salt, and the nearby salt mines have been critical for the region for centuries) and is the birthplace of favorite-son Mozart (a fairly amazing guy:  was competent at violin and piano and was composing concertos…..at age five!  and apparently was one of the most prolific and influential musicians of all time even though he died at only 35).  

 We of course visited the local huge castle (after viewing it from a distance)

That had some cool old skis and some equally-cool old skins:

hiked up the Three Hills that define the Salzburg basin:

Ate some light Austrian fare:

went to see a marionette play:

“Marionettes” are the puppets that the Von Trapp kids did their little play with in The Sound of Music, which was filmed in Salzburg and based on the true-ish story of the Von Trapps; it’s one of the biggest tourist draws in town. 

We learned about Franz Josef; a critical leader of Austria (and Hungary) from 1848 to 1916; he was hoping that his nephew Franz Ferdinand would be his heir, but alas Franz  – and his wife – were assassinated and – even more alas – that assassination started World War I. 

We are pretty sure that our old pal Paul Ecker is a descendant of Franz the Elder:

And we signed up for a class to make the Austrian National Dessert:  Apple Strudel.  super fun, and such a great treat!  

Though its still been painfully dry in Austria, we did get a rogue storm that dropped a foot of snow in the mountains, and we actually got to ski a few powder turns before it melted and dried out again.  We were also able to do a little crevasse rescue session with Stefan, which was great:

and i went up and beyond our most-local resort and was able to ski a line I had eyed before.  A quick/funny story:  I saw some folks climbing this long line that funneled up into a couloir and it was pretty well tracked up and the new snow felt pretty well bonded so I was good on climbng up to ski it, and  -as a very popular ski country – there were others on the skin track.  I caught another solo guy near the top and we chatted a bit and I asked if he wouldn’t mind if I joined him for the ski down, and he agreed. I introduced myself as did Lukas, and we were off. It was about a 1200-foot long line, and by doing a little awkward traverse we were able to get into a line that we both had glorious untracked turns down.   As I got to the bottom we were both buzzing hard and with huge breathless grins had a little fist bump; I realized yet again that it doesn’t matter if you know the person or not; sharing a little experience like that makes it even more special.  

We ultimately came to the parking lot and I said “hey, take my number and if you need a ski pard, I’m always ready to go.” And he said “Well, sure I’ll take your number, but it’s pretty unlikely!”  I love Euros; they just tell it like it is without any of the cheerfully unrealistic hyperbole.  We had a nice experience, and that was it!

A few days later we decided to keep our Austrian World Cup Ski Event streak going so we went to a World Cup Nordic Combined event, which naturally combines skate skiing and Big Jumping; we missed the ski part (we were skiing ourselves) but the jumping was cool; the first few were pretty exciting but over time it got….not really boring per se, but they are all very good and were jumping pretty much exactly the same.  That said, we were excited that an American woman got on the podium, which our pal Robin pointed out was the first time in many moons, and another American was 5th.  

Amazingly, there is NO women’s Nordic Combined in the Olympics?  WTF?   Men’s NC has been an Olympic sport since the begining there is snowboard crossslopestyleairpipe, women’s jumping, and many other new and old, equally-silly (but exciting) sports….but no women’s Nordic Combined?  And the real irony is that it’s a sport where women do quite well as compared to men; all the competitors were right around the 100m mark.   Ah, the Olympics….so great, so frustrating….

We were also able to do a fun ski tour to a hut with great Austrian food with our buddy Linh, who’s about the friendliest guy ever and so fun to chat with!

We then blasted a few hours west to visit our old friend Thomas, whom I’d done a coupla hut trips with too long ago when he lived in the US as a colleague of Greg Hanlon’s.  We had a fabulous weekend with Thomas and his hunny Martina; we actually went “backcountry skiing” – instead of skinning and skiing in and out of resorts; even though their snowpack is not much better than Austria’s since Switzerland has also been out of the this winter’s typical storm track of NW Italy, Pyrenees, and SW France, there’s slightly more and of course local knowledge of where to go in any given conditions (our big liability here) was super helpful.  

And of course so fun to yuk it up with old and new friends!

And speaking of old friends, we’ve been excited since the Fall for the newly-liberated-from-working Colin Gregersen to come for a visit!

  We’ve been a little worried about keeping Colin entertained with the snowpack that’s as grim as Utah’s, but we’ve been managing pretty well; Colin has appreciated the good – and sometimes challenging – skinning, flying down groomers, and the jaw-dropping views of the big craggy nearby peaks.  

And we’ve even gotten a few untracked turns

We’ve also made sure to do a few touristo things:  The Main Castle of Innsbruck, that’s well-known for its big armor display:

And we went to the Swarovski crystal museum; Swarovski has been making crystals (basically, poor man’s diamonds) forever and have done some whacky stuff with them:

So we’re still making the most of a lean Austrian winter (I’ve still been on skis every day) and – as with the US West, it seems like finally the storms are lining up to pound all of the Alps, not just us here in the dry east this upcoming week.  Could be too much snow, too fast, or maybe too-high freezing levels….We’ll see how we go!