My trip, although done solo, was an awesome experience and I enjoyed every moment of it, lonely or not. First off, I was/am very impressed with myself for actually getting to the small ski town, via train, plane, bus, train, plane etc. I'm getting good at this! So no problems there and made it to my beautiful hotel room right on the side of the hill with zero glitches.
Sketchy! But overwhelmingly beautiful when this little guy flew through the alps.
Room for two for one please!
The first ski day I was up early, and after eating one of those awesome euro breakfasts at my hotel (meat cheese nutella muesli YAY!) riding the most massive gondola I've ever been on realized this was the most expansive ski resort I had ever set foot on... o yeah and there was no snow. But the sun was shining and so I enjoyed the day exploring the area and soaking up some much needed vitamin D. Legs DEAD by 2:30, so I met up with some of Cato's austrian ski instructor friends for food and beers... which progressed into austrian drinking games and the legendary experience that is St. Anton Apres at the Krazy Kangaroo. In bed, watching jurassic park in German by 8 30. Perfect!
Ski Day Two: up early again with the sun beating down already! On day two, because the snow was still lacking (..note foreshadowing for day 3!!) I decided to take the ski bus to Lech and Zurs, two of the areas that are under Ski Arlberg and work with the pass you get for the area. Getting on the bus was an experience in itself, people do not do line ups here, they push, they shove, they are ruthless!!! But I got on the first bus, squished up against the door but I made it! Lech was very cute, not that exciting of a hill as most of the fun looking stuff seemed to be closed for avis/lack of snow, but it was cool to see and I got some good runs in.
Bus Stop in Lech.
Zurs was pretty sweet! I played on one chairlift for a while that had a sweet run down the side of the mountain, finally something close to powdah! Legs=DEAD. Decided to start making my way back to St. Anton and then ski out to the hotel for a hot relaxing bath, and then BOOM, it starts snowing.
This is what happens in europe when it starts dumping and gets windy, EVERYONE beelines to the bar...
MAYHEM!
I explored the town of St. Anton that afternoon and experienced one of the lonelier moments of my life, involving me eating dinner alone in a pub thing close to my hotel.. with a book. Just picture it, wallowing in self pity! The night also included me watching BBC news and learning alot! (only to find out the next day that Disney channel was also in English!!) Moving on..
hey powdaah!
Woke up to a bluebird ski and a beautiful fresh layer of snow covering the ground! I booked it straight away to the top of the mountain to get my first powder turns of 2010 in!! Felt so good. Minus the really sketchy ice patches underneath the pow, 2 more feet of snow would have been nice. I did some laps at the top of St. Anton and got bored of the sketchy crowds, so I went over across the Valley to Stuben (correct me if that's not the name). UNREAL! This place was what I came for, absolutley no one on the hill, so I did laps and laps of fresh track runs until I could feel the goggle burn developing on my face about to explode. SO FUN, I am the only friend I need on days like these!
Fine Dining on the Chairlift
my playground
So the ski legs were in shock after this day (which ended with an EPIC run on the other side heading back to st. anton), and I possibly had some sun stroke, so at 3 I said goodbye to the beauty of the alps and went back to the hotel. This night went something like the last one.. but this time I had Hannah Montana on the disney channel to keep me company, and yet another sophie kinsella book that the cute little bookstore in town had.
One last story for the road: I was pretty convinced that I had everything planned for departure day to a tee, I thought "o yeah, I'll get up early, have a nice breakfast, go to the train and catch the 9:43 to get to the airport about 90 min early for my flight out of Innsbruck" NOT. Hey all you europeans out there, thank you so much for kindly informing me that daylight savings occured on Saturday night, and if i wanted to make it to my flight with more then 10 minutes to spare, i should probably change my clocks!
This was the most stressful, white knuckled train ride of my life. But I made it!
O yeah, then I finally got to stockholm at 10 pm and they lost my skis. (don't worry they got to me today - next day)
All in all, this trip was what we like to call "Executive Skiing" at it's finest. I would love to go back to St. Anton any day with some of my favorite ski buddies to share the fabulousness of it all. (Dad?!)
Back in Stockholm (snow-free stockholm yess!), and planning for my Russia trip which starts Wednesday! I know what you're all thinking... "don't you go to school!?" Well the answer is.. no not really. Ha! Kidding I have a class tomorrow, Spring term is starting.
That's it thats all.
Much Love, J
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