The weather was not looking great visibility wise, but judging by the amount of snow that we have had fall over the last few days there should be some great snow waiting. I met up with Nick & Phil and we were also joined by an old friend who has not been here for a few years - Suzie :) At the top of Galzig the
wind was blowing a gale and cold with it. We headed for Kandahar and found some visibility and lovely fresh snow, so nice that we went back up and skied it again. Then we decided to head for Gampen, heading up on the chair you could see some great unpisted, untracked snow. When we reached it we found it was even better than it had looked from the chair lift, deep fresh powder, in fact so deep in places that it was hard to get up enough speed. This was a great way to kick off the season, deep powder on the piste! After another run the muscles were really starting to ache so it was time for a long hot chocolate stop followed by one more run to the bottom and a nice salad in the Base Camp. Roll on tomorrow as it has been snowing hard all afternoon and it could be even better.
So I am back
to the blog, needed some time off for many reasons but now just like the
snow I am back! Arrived back in St.Anton at the weekend and as I
arrived so did the snow. It has been coming down pretty heavily for the
last few days and is set to continue for the next week.The lifts open
on Thursday and I will be there waiting for the first gondola up. Hoping
for a great season with plenty of off piste and less occasions when we
get snowed in! There is plenty in the village so I guess that up on the
mountain there is even more - I will be uploading Thursday afternoon so
watch this space.
Remember to check out the Sidney Reilly website for ALL the info you will need on St.Anton - there you will find great deals on holidays & apartments as well as much more - to get there just click here or on the link for "St.Anton Info Site" to the right. Also if you are looking for great ski apartments to rent in the village then click here.
Many of you will know of the Anthony Gormley's Horizon Field in Vorarlberg - the statues are set all around the mountains at the same altitude of 2039 metres. The statues are casts of the artists body and all slightly different and are rumoured to have cost half a million euro to install prompting thoughts that maybe the lift pass price is too high if such vast sums of money can be spent in this manner!! The most easily seen one is below the Valfagher lift from Rauz and each year some enterprising souls see fit to dress it up - last season it finished up with a full set of ski kit including hat and goggles. This year it is a little less - check out the mankini :)
Went to Kandahar this evening for Gunar's last apres ski of the season. Earlier this season in seemed like the transfer from the Piccadilly across to Kandahar was not working so well as the bar was never very busy which must have been worrying for both Gunar & Jonathan. However it now seems that the message has got across there is great music early evening in Kandahar as the recently the place has been packed and really rocking. Tonight was no excep
tion, I would estimate 200 - 300 people packed in to see Gunar do his stuff for the final time this season. It was more like an intimate rock concert than a bar. Lets hope that it continues like this from the off next season as it really was the place to be lately.
Yet another beautiful sunny day and I had promised David, John & Peter to show them around the Lech area. So we did the usual stops of the Ice Bar and Mohenflur where we had a nice cold bottle of white wine. The skiing was good too, nice snow and not too many people around. Once w
e had returned to St.Anton we went on a bit of a tour around the apres ski bars, Taps, Mooserwirt, Piccadilly, Kandahar, Scotties and then back to Piccadilly. Net result being a late drunken night...
For those of you who know me well you will understand that I am not a big fan of the country of cuckoo clocks and chocolate and especially of their boys in blue..... However the is one man from that never to be visted place that I admire very much, a great skier with balls the size of footballs. He has just retired and I think this clip sums the guy up. Click here and here to see what I mean!
Popped into the Heustadl today and the terrace was packed, lots of people listening to the live music that they play here each day. It seems to me that it is now as busy as the Mooserwirt and also you find a better class of drunk skier here!! Also guys there are much more girls here than at the Moos!!
Off to Lech again today, the sun is out and the slopes are quiet over here. Headed to the red runs above Oberlech which are always fun to ski. Stopped for a gluewine at the Kriegeralpe which does very
good hot chocolate too! Checked out the ice bar and of course booked a table at the Mohenflur for a long late lunch..... Oh happy days.
Decided as it is so warm at the moment that it was time to escape from St.Anton and go topless! So I took the cover off the car and put the roof down and headed off to the Bodensee. The Bodensee is the lake that sits between Austria, Germany & Switzerland at Bregenz and well worth a visit in the summer. It was great to sit by the lake and enjoy an ice cream - almost like being in Italy :)
The weather was not looking great visibility wise, but judging by the amount of snow that we have had fall over the last few days there should be some great snow waiting. I met up with Nick & Phil and we were also joined by an old friend who has not been here for a few years - Suzie :) At the top of Galzig the
wind was blowing a gale and cold with it. We headed for Kandahar and found some visibility and lovely fresh snow, so nice that we went back up and skied it again. Then we decided to head for Gampen, heading up on the chair you could see some great unpisted, untracked snow. When we reached it we found it was even better than it had looked from the chair lift, deep fresh powder, in fact so deep in places that it was hard to get up enough speed. This was a great way to kick off the season, deep powder on the piste! After another run the muscles were really starting to ache so it was time for a long hot chocolate stop followed by one more run to the bottom and a nice salad in the Base Camp. Roll on tomorrow as it has been snowing hard all afternoon and it could be even better.
