Friday 25 December 2009 – Christmas in Kaprun!

Merry Christmas!!!

Kaprun!!!

(click on the photo above to enjoy the entire album!)

Today we woke up and enjoyed the bounty “Santa” had put out on the kitchen table – lots of German and Swiss candies with other goodies and a Christmas ornament for each of us from Ginger’s dad! Very cute! From there we bumbled around making breakfast and started getting ready to go skiing. We went back to the ski shop where we had prearranged our rentals the day before, some of us bought ourselves waterproof pants for Christmas (because our hotel had told us we could rent this item in Kaprun…but the shopkeepers in Kaprun thought we were crazy…), and then we set out to enjoy the slopes.

Early on, as we tromped around in ski boots, hauling all our skis, poles, etc as we worked up a solid sweat (it was at least 40* F on the ground), we couldn’t quite agree on where to start skiing…and so before I knew it I found myself hopping on a bus with Daniel and Phil while Justin, Chris and Ginger headed in a different direction.

Now, some background information. Justin has never skied before. That said, he wanted to start on the beginner slopes and Ginger and Chris wanted to help him learn and Chris felt he needed a bit of refreshing in the skiing department. So, they started off on Maiskogel, the lower section of the mountain that we can see from our apartment. Phil, Daniel, and I headed for the Glacier, and set out to go to the top of Kitzsteinhorn. Phil snowboards and Daniel and I ski. The shuttle picked us up and dropped us off at the lifts and we boarded gondola number one, a closed cabin that started pulling us up the mountain and was a 15-20+ minute ride. This one was especially pretty as we rose up and were able to see more and more mountain peaks as our excitement and anxiety kicked in. The first gondola ride just gets you to the section of the mountain that you can ski on. After that you have to board another gondola to get up the first half of the skiable mountain – which we did, and experienced another 15-20 minute ride. During gondola ride number two we started entering what we thought was a cloud, but later discovered was going to be a full blown white-out. After that to get to the top you board cable car number three, which takes another 15-20 minutes and requires you to pack in with 60 other people all holding their skis or boards and takes you to the tip top of the mountain. At this point the white-out was in full effect, so we were in a completely packed car of people, suspended in the air, unable to see anything around us but white. It was a little crazy.

So by this point, our adrenaline was really picking up, several nearly vertical ascents up the mountain is enough to make one a bit edgy…and then in the cable car I noticed half the people (even skiers) were wearing helmets. Hmm… And then we were at the top! And would have had an amazing view, but we were truly in the midst of a white-out of such extreme proportions that you could not see the trails, or the snow in front of you, and you could only faintly make out people in near proximity…

Now, we did ski through the first portion of the day, and we did have a good time, but the white-out was really challenging. In a lot of ways it was like skiing blind and it was very difficult to anticipate how steep the slope was, what the snow density was like…or anything…you had no idea what was in front of you, what the trail markings were, or what was going on. And so it was tricky. The other challenge for us? For one, Phil couldn’t manage the toe rope that you put between your legs and leaned back on to repeat a section. And for Daniel and myself it was the altitude. The out of breath when I really shouldn’t be feeling that I have when I go to Colorado for AP grading returned and we both found ourselves so dizzy and winded at one point we actually skied to the side and sat down for a few minutes. (In our defense we were up over 3,000 meters). We broke off from Phil after a while so we could each go our own pace, but we found him at the bottom when we were getting ready to board the bus back.

Daniel and I skied for several hours – it took one hour to take the gondola up and we probably skied for two or three hours…and only went down the mountain one and a half times. Fortunately, the white-out wasn’t as bad on the second half of the slopes, so we doubled back to do those again. But, when we did, the white-out moved in on us there too. We did a mix of easy and intermediate slopes – the snow was fantastic and the intermediate slopes were fairly challenging…or at least got much more challenging once we couldn’t see where we were going again. We were really disappointed we couldn’t see any of the surrounding mountains (or what was in front of us), but all in all we were glad we tackled the glacier and did have a really good time.

On the other half of the mountain, from what Ginger, Chris and Justin have said, Justin was doing a lot of tumbling down the mountain. Chris’s boots were too tight and he had to go get them altered and Ginger was patiently following behind Justin helping collect his poles, skis, etc...and taking pictures of his wipe outs. She’s a true friend. They also had the misfortune of rain. The snow we had up top was only rain on the ground, so that was definitely causing some challenges for them. The perks? They had much better views of the outlaying towns and said they could see Zell am See and the lake from their slopes and actually got to see where they were going and enjoy the view of other mountains as they did it. In the end, Justin parked it in a lodge and Chris and Ginger went back to our hotel to get the rental car and drove over to pick poor Justin up. But, Justin says he’s definitely glad he tried it. Chris got to put the BMW to test as he drove some fun winding roads and Ginger got to white knuckle it.

After skiing we all crashed pretty hard in our apartment and enjoyed a quiet, lazy, Christmas afternoon, with the exception of the Venice discovery. Special thanks to Phil’s mom for giving us the heads up! We were very saddened to learn that Venice is currently under five feet of water and that the mayor is urging tourists not to visit. We were scheduled to arrive there Tuesday morning. Sad. We’ve done some research, have a few ideas, but because we cannot translate the eight page German pdf reservations policy (from you guessed it – Deutsche Bahn) we won’t know our options until late tomorrow. We are hoping we can transfer reservations and not lose the money, but we are not holding our breath. The good news? By cancelling our hotel reservations before midnight, we cancelled free of charge.

We had 6:30 dinner reservations at the restaurant down in our hotel and had a beautiful dinner with soups of tomato basil, French onion, and cream of apple and celery -- followed with different plates we chose which included roast duck, lamb, fillet, and pasta. All delicious. We accompanied the meal with some delicious wines and really had a great dinner together.

We have also spent our Christmas eating German and Swiss candy, making a village with the critters we found in our Kinder Eggs, and creating a pretty terrible, but funny, video message to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I will not insult your intelligence by lying and saying it was all scripted. Please enjoy!

We have missed you all and look forward to catching up with all of you when we arrive back in the states! Thank you so much for the positive feedback on the blog! We’re very happy you’re enjoying it!

We wish you the merriest of Christmases from a snowy little apartment in Austria!

Love,
-Beth and Daniel, Chris, Ginger, Phil, and Justin