Snowboarding trip, Post 2: On the slopes

Continuing on from Snowboarding trip, Post 1...

It was about 5:30pm on Sunday when we arrived in Munich to meet Donna off the train. We weren't quite early enough to go into the station to meet her, so opted for plan B: our pre-arranged meeting point on a nearby street corner. Not being able to find a parallel park the length of our car, we had to settle for one the width of our car instead, reversing our rear wheels onto the footpath and hoping no parking inspectors came along. Not too long after, we had found Donna and were headed for Kaprun, Austria, 180km away.

A couple of hours later, we stopped at a large servo in Germany for some tea. This would have been quite a non-event and not worth mentioning on here, had it not been for the fact that about 20 minutes after we left, I suddenly realised my handbag was missing. Yes, I had left it behind at the table where we had eaten tea!!! I have never left a handbag or purse behind in my entire life (generally it's just wedding rings :P), but it had been on the bench seat underneath my jacket, so I must have walked away from the table whilst still putting my jacket on and therefore not had the usual impulse to check for forgotten items.

By this time we were in Austria. As we found our way onto the other side of the autobahn and headed back towards Germany, I was fairly confident the bag would have been handed in, so the main worry was finding our way back to the right servo, and the impact on our eventual arrival time!

Anyway, we found the servo and Donna and I headed in to make the necessary investigations, having looked up the German word for “handbag” and practised saying “Ich habe meine Handtasche nach gelassen” on our way. There was only a slight moment of concern as we registered the empty bench seat and a distinct lack of dawning comprehension on the face of the lady who had served our dinner, before another lady came over and asked whether we had lost a bag. She showed us to Customer Services, where I was reunited with my bag and asked to check that everything was still in it. Yes, and you can imagine my great relief! We then hit the road again, and called Matt to let him know we would be arriving at about 10pm.

When we arrived, we were met by our vivacious, loud-voiced host, Rupey, whose parents own the Gasthof zur Künsteralm. It was a gorgeous, delightfully traditional Austrian building complete with dark brown wood and balcony railings topped with plants and red bows, nestled partway up the mountains above Kaprun.

Matt's room was next to ours so we soon dropped to see him. At this point we learnt that their holiday had not gone too well so far. Since leaving England on Thursday, they had had to sort out the problem of a faulty fire alarm blaring constantly for two days in their apartment back in England. Then, the night before we arrived, Katharina (away visiting her dad) was involved in a car accident that resulted in her not being allowed to snowboard for the rest of the trip. :( Frustrating as well as painful!! She was at her dad's until Wednesday, so she won't be in the photos etc until I get up to then...

On Monday morning, the four of us had breakfast at our guesthouse (we had “half board”, which included breakfast and tea each day) before driving into Kaprun to hire snowboards (Ben and I) and skis (Donna). Matt had his own board. Fast forward to when that has been achieved and the grocery store has been raided to fill our backpacks with nutritious snacks to keep us going on the slopes...

Leaving our car back at the guesthouse, we waited out front for the free shuttle buses that come by regularly to take people up and down the mountain. Soon, we had arrived at the bottom of Kitzsteinhorn, only 1200m from our guesthouse. There, we purchased our passes and set off up the mountain in a gondola, and after that a cable car, to get up to where we would start the repetitive process of going down and up the mountainside for a few days. The scenery was breathtakingly brilliant... Alps all around, plentiful snow, pine/fir trees, rocky outcrops... but I will leave it up to my photos from the next few days to illustrate the point!

Here is a summary of our three/four days on the slopes, covering the main locations, activities and injuries, and photos from each day...

Monday:

The four of us rode the slopes at Kitzsteinhorn.

We did a particular red run over and over the first day, thinking red was the easiest level, before finding out that it was actually the middle level available!

I boarded goofy (right foot forward) but had lots of trouble turning from heel side to toe side and vice versa. The boys provided constant advice. I fell over lots. Got a very sore bottom.

Tuesday:

Went to Kitzsteinhorn again. Went higher than 3000m above sea level!

Did blue (easiest) and red runs.

Around lunchtime, we decided to change my board from goofy to natural (left foot forward), which helped a little but unfortunately did not have the longed-for magical instant-expert-producing effect. Turns improved somewhat but confidence decreased due to fear of falling for the 528^th time on very very sore bottom.

At the end of the day I had my first ever attempt at skiing using Donna's equipment on almost-flat ground. I've no idea why anyone would ski rather than snowboard. I've never felt so clumsy and uncoordinated in my entire life! It's quite alarming when your feet are a metre long and one is facing forwards while the other is parallel to it but facing backwards (although this may not be the actual aim of the sport).

Wednesday:

Rode the bus to Zell am See to ski/board at Schmittenhöhe for a change of scenery and runs. The view from up the mountain was spectacular – in the valley below, we could see Zell am See and its frozen lake with a couple of large round unfrozen sections in it.

Did blue, red and black (most difficult) runs. The black run was an accident – the red run we were on was closed off partway down and the only way to the bottom of the mountain was on a black run! The boys were fine, Donna was initially worried but slalomed down admirably, and I skidded down heel side all the way but didn't fall over because for once the boys weren't insisting I keep trying to turn!

Left leg got hit by a chairlift when I wasn't watching while getting on. Bruise still visible two weeks later. Shoulder got hit by a chairlift at top of run when I fell off immediately upon disembarking.

Saw a wedding reception taking place at a restaurant up the mountain – watched them all dancing on the open air deck!

Still boarding natural. Turns still dodgy until mid-afternoon. Finally, to solve the problem of my gaze getting ahead of my pointing finger when turning (the boys had me standing with my elbows in to my ribs, forearms out horizontal, and pointing my way around – one-two-three o'clock – where I wanted my board to turn!), Matt said “try resting your chin on your shoulder as you turn”. PROBLEM INSTANTLY SOLVED!!! No kidding!! With two hours left to go before all my snowboarding for the trip was over (I had a 3-day pass because of Kat returning and being unable to board the next day; the others had 4-day passes), I could finally turn almost on cue, without falling over, and, therefore, fairly confidently. Unbelievable!!!

We finished the day by going down a horribly steep run (way too steep to turn even with my chin now glued to my shoulder) that was quite icy in parts. My board slid out on the ice and I went tumbling down the slope on my back, feet first, then was flipped around so I was actually sliding head first, the slope too steep to stop myself, before finally coming to rest in a well-placed mogul. Matt said later he had noticed (from the bottom of the hill) someone in a blue jacket plummeting head first down the slope! A rather scary moment for me...

When we finally made it to the bottom (must have taken an hour or so), the country song “Running Bear” was playing over the loudspeakers with German lyrics – how funny!

Kat had arrived back at the guesthouse that afternoon, so at the end of the day she picked us up in our car at a bus stop in town, as we were too late for any buses to still be going past the guesthouse. :)

Thursday:

Matt had hurt his ribs in a stack on Monday, but had boarded for two more days before deciding at breakfast on Thursday that they hurt enough that he should go to hospital to have them checked out. It turned out that he had bruised rib cartilage (Kat tells me he's all better now), so he didn't board that day either!

So, only Ben and Donna went up the mountain – Kitzsteinhorn again. This day it was snowing and there was a white out at the top of the mountain. Visibility improved later on. They also went inside an igloo (a huge one with a Volvo inside) at a rest/party area partway down the runs!

During the evenings, we ate tea at our guesthouse, lazed around reading books, and played card games and Chain Reaction. Thoroughly enjoyable!!! Here's an amusing video of the boys' team taking it in turns to say "pongy" as they touch their nose with each finger as many times as they can in 30 seconds...

In the next post I'll tell you what Matt, Kat and I did on Thursday while the other two were up the mountain, as well as what we all got up to on Friday, the designated sightseeing day of the trip. For now, this is plenty long enough so goodnight!