Skiing in the Alps

The halfway point for the school year was last Wednesday, January 30th. The boys all received their marks (report cards) and school was dismissed after just three periods that day. Though the boys were a bit discouraged with their grades, Tracy and I were tickled pink that they didn't fail everything and actually did quite well in some of the classes. It's been very challenging to attempt to do schoolwork in another language - they've had lots of pressure on them from teachers and peers...and themselves. Just not from Tracy and me. As a break in between semesters, they then had off school for Thursday and Friday....what a perfect opportunity for us to head south for our ski trip.

It seemed perfect when we planned the trip in late December; however, we all started passing around flu-like symptoms the week before we were to go! Ugh! We prayed that it would make its rounds with enough time for us to feel like traveling. All of the boys missed some school leading up to the trip. Micah even missed the Monday and Tuesday of the week we were leaving. By the time Wednesday afternoon rolled around, all that seemed to be lingering was the coughing up of lungs. I'm not sure how many those boys have, but they lost several during the battle with that virus! Still, that didn't seem to slow any of the boys down on the slopes.

The boys and I had everything ready to go when Tracy arrived with the vehicle. It was a spacious vehicle - for which we were very thankful - but it was not equipped with a GPS. Trying to find places in Austria without a GPS is like looking for a needle in a haystack. So we stopped at Real on the way out of town and purchased one! Long before we arrived at our flat in Niedernsill, we were quite thankful for the investment. That thing saved us many hours of headache and time.

Thursday morning we drove over to Kaprun to pick up our rentals. I had taken care of all of that on-line so the process went quite smoothly. Well, that is apart from me pulling a fast one in the parking lot! I stepped out of the van onto a sheet of ice and landed hard on my tailbone. That made skiing on Thursday interesting, especially since Noah needed lots of help getting up off of the ground that day! I couldn't bend over so had to maneuver him with my ski poles. Tracy was helping the older two figure out how to snowboard. And Josiah, well....after one time down, he basically pointed his skis south and took off! We're thankful he survived the trip. Helmets are a standard issue for kids. And we were very grateful on more than one occasion that we had them. Micah took a spill in the parking lot headed back to the van after the second day of skiing. I've never seen anyone's head smack the ground that hard. That helmet saved us a trip to for stitches that evening!

This photo was taken after our first time off of the lift...I do believe everyone
fell in that attempt! We were fortunate that the weather was warm for our first
day. The temps were in the upper 30s and the sun was out so we ended up
having to shed some layers. That is much nicer than being cold!

~ Noah - 9 ~
That would be green duct tape on his snow pants! They were ripping and
I didn't have the correct stuff with me to really patch them up right. So...
duct tape it is! I think he would have preferred a patch!

~ Joel - 13 ~
We were glad we stuck with "The Nursery" for the first two days as this
allowed Joel to really get the feel for the board. Falling a lot is part of
learning to snowboard. He took his fair share but finally got the knack
and really enjoyed snowboarding!

Notice how my skis are not headed down the mountain? I liked it that way!

~ Josiah - 11 ~
And notice how Josiah's skis are pointed straight down the mountain? He
liked it that way! He was the only one that skied a red with Tracy at the end
of Day 1. When we met up with them at the bottom, he said he wasn't sure
he'd give that another try....but of course, he did the next day as well.

~ Micah - 14 ~
This was Micah's first time snowboarding as well. He really didn't want to
wear a helmet, but later said that he was really thankful for it as he, too,
had his fair share of spills in learning how to snowboard.

Notice his plaid pants?? He was definitely the coolest 45 year old on the slopes!

We opted to ski the first day near Zell am See which is just beyond Kaprun. There was a blue slope there that we were told would be good for our first run. I don't recall the name of the run, but it is commonly called "The Nursery." Nursery, my foot! That run gave us enough challenges that we ended up staying on that one run all day. It took Noah and me well over two hours to get down it the first time. I think we only went down three times that first afternoon. Micah and Joel were snowboarding for the first time so they, too, needed lots of instruction and time to figure out how to manuever their boards. In fact, we decided we would start on that same slope the second day to continue to practice. At the end of Day 2, we were just beginning to feel ready for something else!

This is Joel, Josiah and Micah after successfully boarding a lift. I'm sure the
guys working the lift got a kick out of us attempting this feat. It wasn't until
Day 3 that we were all that skilled with it. The lift had to be stopped on a
number of occasions due to our falling getting on and off!

Day 2 was a bit cloudier which helped as we didn't get quite so hot. The
clouds would move throughout the day blocking the view. I am so glad
we had a couple of days of getting to enjoy the beauty of the mountains.
God's creation is so diverse - being on that mountain top was breathtaking!

At the top of the slopes, there was a little lodge-type building that offered a
lunchroom. I had packed a lunch for Day 2 so we stopped at one point and
rested our legs while eating lunch. The boys were pretty impressed that I
hadn't wrecked at all up to this point so as a result, lunch was not smushed. 

When Josiah took off his helmet at the car, the steam
was rising from his head and helmet. He thought that
was pretty cool!

Looking back, we are very thankful that we took our time at first as it made our trip much more enjoyable overall. Everyone felt confident to branch out on our last day so we drove to another area over near Kitzbühel. The snow was really coming down as we neared the pass creating a nightmare on the roads. And Austria doesn't tend to have many guardrails. In other words, it is easy to be a nervous-wreck on those twisty mountain roads!

The road conditions were such that some cars were having difficulty moving
forward. Stopping a vehicle on these types of roads = not a good idea. In fact,
there was one place that traffic was held up by a rear-wheel station wagon that
couldn't get going again. Micah, Joel and I jumped out and helped the guy push
it out of the ditch. All the while, Tracy couldn't stop our vehicle so we had to
run to catch up to him. When we finally made it back into our car, I was so
tired I wasn't sure skiing was such a good idea. Micah said that he felt like he
was in a movie...jumping into a moving vehicle while running in snowboard
boots is not the easiest of feats!

We made it to the lift area and were very encouraged to find out that because the lifts over to Kitzbühel were closed due to high winds, we only had to pay 90 Euros for all six of our lift tickets for the entire day! That is an incredible deal! Lift tickets in Snow Mass, CO, are over $100/person/day. The woman apologized that there were not many runs open for us. Little did she know that we really only needed one!

The gondola ride to the top was so long that we ate lunch on it. These
pb&j sandwiches aren't in the best of shape as I did have my share of spills
on Day 3. I think I can safely say that I am the only one in the family that
would choose to stay on a blue rather than enjoy the fun of the reds! As a
result, I chose to enjoy the lodge at the top for a few of the runs. While they
skied, I mentally planned out the week that my brother and his family are
coming to visit over Easter! 

The gondola was so much nicer than a regular lift. It was snowing and blowing
so hard on Day 3 that being inside something on the way to the top was a
real blessing. And this one was big enough for all of us to easily fit in together.

Having a difficult time figuring out which slope to take, we ended up on a red. Umm....yes, the first time down was a bit hairy. We were also concerned that we would not end up where we parked our car. So many slopes connect via lifts that you could easily ski from one mountain to another. So once we knew that this slope took us back to our starting point, we stuck with it. We did try one other slope after that first red as Noah was a bit overwhelmed by it....and me, too! Going back to a blue after the excitement of the red was not all that fun so the rest of the day, we skied the red. Side note - they classify slopes as blue, red or black. We didn't venture near a black.

~ The end of Day 3 ~
It was bittersweet to finish that last run. We were all tired and yet seeing the
end of any vacation is hard. Plus, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
What a blessing that we could do this together as a family. And we are so very
thankful that we didn't have any serious injuries. Micah ended up with such a
bad headache on this evening that he threw up on the way to return our skis.
We were just thankful that he didn't have a concussion!

As we left Niedernsill on Sunday morning, we were all very sore....a good sore, though. Numerous times in the previous three days Motrin was popped like candy. In fact, after the first day, all six of us came home and took Motrin to help with the pain.

The drive out of Austria was just beautiful. The snow was still coming down through the pass and was just hanging on the trees. I am so thankful that is snowed while we were there. It had rained all day Wednesday as we drove in and that just doesn't fit my mental image of the Alps in the wintertime! So though the snow made for some difficult driving for Tracy, it made for a picture perfect ride for the rest of us.

Again, I am thankful that we got to see the Alps the first few days since
visibility wasn't great towards the end of our trip. Having fresh snow
though was worth it!

I love how the snow is several inches deep on each of the
branches of the tree.