With Finn’s return from Estonia, we now have a computer to finally update the blog, having posted one full of old news last time. So, it’s time to talk about Austria…
We arrived in Munich airport confused as to the time zone (9 hours back from California) language (German, of course) and pickup arrangement from the airport. Our planned lift from Finn didn’t happen due to a monster traffic jam in which he’d been ensnared, so we did our best to take the train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany, not knowing that we could have taken it further still all the way to Seefeld in Tirol, our final destination. The modest amount of snow in Munich grew to a sizeable 1.5 metres’ depth by the time Finn had driven us from Garmisch over the Austrian border. It was also cold, -20 Celsius that night, which made for a rather rude shock after our final night of no snow and positive temperatures in California.
Having settled into our apartment with Finn, we headed out early for a classic ski the next morning in cold, sunny weather, where our skis barely moved in places, such was the grippy quality of the snow. The Alpine scenery blew us away (metaphorically, not literally), as we slowly absorbed the views of the craggy peaks which surrounded us, skiing from picturesque village to picturesque village.
Mountains and stuff
Tuesday saw us watching Alex Gibson in his first Youth Olympic Games race, a 10km classic, in which he came 44th. The steep and long hill clearly took its toll, as the technique of all but the very best skiers declined with increasing fatigue. Following that I (Nick) went out with JC for a fairly long loop around nearby valleys, including a view of the Inn valley, in which is situated Innsbruck, a freeway, a railway line, lots of towns and plenty of factories, which, combined with a regular winter temperature inversion, makes for plenty of smog and fog. Fortunately up on our plateau we have none of these problems; instead we get uninterrupted views of mountains including Germany’s highest, the 2962m Zugspitze.
Seefeld in Tirol
A ‘rest’ day followed on Wednesday, in which we rested by doing some video analysis and technique work on our classic skiing both morning and afternoon, enjoying the last of the sunny weather.
Our first intervals in Europe were on Thursday, although by then light r**n had set in, making the skating difficult as we sometimes sank into the not-quite-firm track. Despite the damp conditions, our skis were actually running faster than they had before! After watching Alex’s 40th place in the skate sprint of Youth Olympics, we went for an exploratory afternoon run, were we remarked on how much we were looking forward for the weather to turn to snow…
Friday saw the first of a forecasted 25cm of snow over two days fall, and as much as we waited for the snow to stop it just wouldn’t, so we braved the elements and went classic skiing. By now there was about 10-15cm of fresh snow, and the trails hadn’t yet been groomed, so we used the powder as balance practice. Despite preparing our zero skis (useful in new, wet snow) I managed to pick up my classics, and having only the wrong wax (violet stick) I was forced to put that on. They soon ‘balled up’, where the snow sticks to the ski and forms ice, so after a few minutes I wasn’t able to do much except walk on my skis. Nevertheless, we pushed on through the winter wonderland (sorry to employ the cliche, but it’s appropriate) to the pretty village of Moesern, from where there is a wonderful view of the valley and nearby mountains, except due to the heavy snow and fog we didn’t see an inch of it. Following the session we retired to the apartment, where I indulged my habit for watching snow fall by spending hours staring out the window, feeling a rush of energy every time the snow fell more heavily and mild disappointment every time it slowed. I guess I’m just that kind of person…
The weekend had come, and while others in the team decided that the weather was too inclement for driving to Germany for races, Tutty and I did our preparation for the next day’s race, which consisted of a few short sprints. By this time over half a metre of snow had fallen (already double the prediction), so our walk to the trails involved a lot of bashing through snow banks and drifts.
Just a bit of snow…
Faced with a long afternoon of reading, eating and general relaxation in the apartment, we decided there was more than ample time to make a trip into nearby Innsbruck for some sightseeing. Despite the continuing heavy snow and an accumulation of more than 2 feet, it didn’t occur to us that travel during a storm is best avoided. After buying our train ticket and sitting on the train, we were told that the snow had brought down an overhead line, and that a bus would be on its way shortly. It arrived after 40 minutes after we were due to depart, and many people piled in. We made it halfway down to Innsbruck in the blizzard, before encountering a traffic jam which wasn’t going anywhere, thus forcing us to return to Seefeld and try a different route. We eventually made it down the valley after another hold-up because of a fallen tree, followed by some precarious passing movements between our bus and those going in the opposite direction, with a few little slides on the snowy road thrown in. We were dropped at a train station 20km from Innsbruck, where we had to wait a further 40 minutes for the train to leave. We arrived after a 44 minute journey had been extended to 2 hours 40 minutes!
I’m testing your patience with such a long post, but just briefly Innsbruck was marvellous as always, with an atmospheric apple strudel bar, beautiful old buildings, views of the mountains after the storm had cleared, and snow piled high in the trees. The downside was the deep slush on all the roads, which gave us wet feet as we went back to the train station to get home, only to be told that we would need to wait about an hour for a bus. All in all we had a great, adventurous and scenic afternoon, except the travel time was almost three times the actual period spent looking at the city…
Inn River in Innsbruck
Innsbruck with mountain backdrop
British Championships were on Sunday in Rupholding, Germany, for which you can see the race report. We encountered our first autobahn, on which our speedy van maxed out at 140km/h on a flat section of road. Re-entering the Alps, we found ourselves in a low (700m elevation), rainy valley, containing nothing but a huge biathlon stadium and racecourse. It’s the venue for the forthcoming Biathlon World Cup, but for now played host to a much smaller race, almost completely devoid of the tens of thousands of spectators common to biathlon. The course was steep and slushy, and for some actual information instead of mindless colour writing see ausxc.com. Our return journey was notable for JC’s rage at the European custom of closing shops on Sunday afternoon, making him unable to buy some clothing he saw in the window, and a near crash with a reversing bus in a narrow European village street, from which we escaped by flooring the accelerator.
Today (finally, I hear you sigh with relief) we did a gentle classic ski in fairly slushy conditions, waiting for the snow to recommence.
by Nick
