SaLps

We just crossed the Austria-Germany border. It appears that Austria stole all of Germany's snow. There's very little here although it looks likethere's a tiny bit more in the surrounding mountains. We've seen lotsof cool looking castles and mountains.... read more

We just got back from our via ferrata adventure. It was a BEAUTIFUL day for it; a bright blue sky and crisp white snow. The lift to get to the start of the climb had been closed for the last week due to serious snow. We were lucky that it just reopened this morning. Unfortunately that meant there was a LOT of snow, waist deep or higher in most areas. For those who don't know what via ferrata is (like us 3 months ago), there are cables bolted throughout the mountains that were put there during the wars. Their purpose was for spying and allowing exits from the villages. We took the gondolas and chairlifts to the start where we left our skis and poles. By this point we already had our harnesses and slings with ... read more

We're on the train going to Landeck Zams, sadly it's our last stop in Austria. The train ride is beautiful. We missed the majority of it on our way to Zell as it was already after dark when we left Innsbruck. Attached are a couple pictures from the train. I am quite content sitting here drinking buttermilk and eating Milka chocolate. Yesterday we had a 'Brad style' day of relaxation. We spent the morning in a cafe drinking coffee and eating apfelstruddel and kasstruddel. Then went to the Taurern Spa. A ridiculous building with about 10 different heated pools and 10 saunas. My favourite part was the kids waterslide, Brad liked the alpine meadow sauna. I reaffirmed that I'm terrible at sitting still and 'relaxing'. It also didn't help that we weren't sure what the rules ... read more

We had another incredible day of skiing today. It was clearer when we got up, so I have a few pictures from the window. In the second if you look closely through the opening you can see the gondola that we take partway up the mountain. We're staying in a very convenient location! We even saw the lake (not yet frozen) from the rides up this morning. We got about a foot of snow or more during the day yesterday and overnight so Brad and I got our first real taste of powder skiing. The piste skiing technique I've beenstarting to get the hang of is useless in the deep snow. On my first run in waist deep snow I took quite the faceplant. Instead of Brad being my 'knight in shining armour or snowy getup' ... read more

We're sitting on top of a mountain after a glorious day snowshoeing and a wonderful evening with the other hutte guests and staff. I can't upload the video, but i must say this has been one of my favorite days over here.... read more

We went downhill skiing today at Axamer Lizum. I had a very satisfying 4 runs (5 if you count the t-bar run). It took an entire run for me to figure out what I was doing, but by the end of the day I had a lot more confidence. The mountains are incredible! I did my last run looking at a limestone mountain range glowing in the setting sun! Sorry no pictures today-the playbooks had a quiet day in our room. Off to bed, we're going to push our muscles tomorrow and go skiing at Patscher Kofel. The ski area has over 1000m of vertical for a single run. Guten Abend!... read more

I'm sending all of you a message from the future... welcome to 2012! Happy New Year! We brought in the new year beside the Inn river watching PHENOMENAL fireworks to a waltz, 'nothing else matters', a german song and '21 guns'. We have a few videos to show. Enjoy the rest of 2011!... read more