Skiing in Austria

We decided that we should act like locals and go skiing. We hadn't really planned on going skiing so it was a bit of a last minute thing. The weather has been relatively mild so the German skifields are still a bit patchy, so with Austria only a few hours away by train it seemed the best place to go. Our landlord Freddy said that Seefeld in Tirol is a good place for beginners so we booked in for a week there. We jumped on the train and took the scenic route via Innsbruck.

We had a wander around Innsbruck and had a coffee and apple strudel for lunch. It's a very picturesque town surrounded by snow-capped mountains on all sides.

We hopped back on the train and wound our way up the valley to Seefeld which is on a plateau above Innsbruck. To our relief it was covered in snow up here and conditions looked pretty good for skiing.

Scenic train ride

Seefeld is exactly like a postcard picture of an Alpine village with it's traditional wooden houses, cosy restaurants, snowy footpaths, and overpriced ski clothes. Luckily we stocked up before we left in Munich and scored ourselves ludicrously cheap ski outfits. It snowed pretty much all day on our first day which made for perfect skiing conditions.

Seefeld main street

Our first port of call was the ski hire shop to get fitted out. We then strode confidently out to the ski school to find the beginner slope which was about 20m long and about as steep as a bowling green. We found our group and our instructor Tony took us through the basics. We spent the first few days on the Geigenbuhl and Birkenlift hills practicing technique and moving onto longer and steeper sections. One of the most stressful parts of skiing was using the t-bar lift, which we never felt fully relaxed on. Kate fell off it once when she got her skis crossed up but it was at the very bottom so it was an easy recovery.

Ready for action

View from the top of the beginners area

After we had mastered the beginner slopes we progressed to the Gschwandtkopf area which was a massive jump in difficulty. There were some very steep sections we had to traverse across which had the nerves going. Kate lost the plot a bit on one section and had to have a bit of a sit down mid slope. After some tears and a pep-talk from Tony and realising that there is only one way down we moved on and made it down.

Our group at the top of the Gschwandtkopf

The next day Kate needed to regain some confidence so we had a few runs back on a smaller hill before heading to the Rosshutte for lunch while the weather was clear.

Restaurant at Rosshutte

Looking down onto Seefeld from the Rosshutte

Fresh snow

Conveniently located bar 

Our last day of skiing started off with a slalom race amongst the beginner groups in which I finished a respectable 3rd after having only 1 practice run compared to everyone else's 3 (not that I'm bitter about it or anything.....). We then moved onto the Rosshutte area which felt like proper skiing. You take the funicular train to the top of the mountain where there is a big restaurant and lookout. The run down from here was amazing with great views of the valley, and tree-lined sections through the forest. It's about a 4km run with about 700m vertical drop. More fresh snow up here made for perfect conditions although the fog was rolling in a little.

Ready for the winter olympics

Skiing down from Rosshutte

Gallant 3rd

After a week of skiing we have now reached the same competency level of an Austrian 2-year-old. The kids over here are unbelievable, the parents seem to just push them off the top of the hill as soon as they can walk. We survived the week with only minor aches and pains and it is definitely on the to-do list again in the future. 

-Joe