Important!

Do not befriend the bartender if you have things to do and places to go the next day! 

(Even if she is a climber!)

You may appreciate the free drinks at the time, but you will not the next morning.

(On another note, we did have a very random but incredibly fun night out at Conrad Sohm's.)

Alpine hiking ... in February?

Great view. Apparently it's still winter.

A lift ticket probably isn't value for money in Kitzbuhl right now. So we decided it would be best to ...

... check out the old town ...

... and some random houses nearby ...

 

.. and head off on a long walk up and down the hill, in the sun. Great spot for a picnic, eh?

Skiing! And Snowboarding!

Sunny days and snowy slopes - and a friendly (almost) local to show us around - meant an awesome three days.

Our buddy Marty played the tour guide, and each day he took us to a different resort in his current home region of Voralberg, Austria. We started at Damuls, hit up Lech's neighbour Warth on Thursday and finished up on Friday at Brand. Each place had its charms, but the runs were the best at Warth.

It didn't take long for us to remember the simple tricks on skis (for Jen) and snowboard (for Mark), and soon we were keeping pace with Marty and daring him to show us the black runs. Jen felt more confident than ever and surprised Marty and Mark by actually being willing to go fast, even beating those slowboarders to the bottom of runs (well, sometimes ... ) There were no notable stacks caught on camera, sadly, and only a few suspicious snow marks on clothes.

After midday it was time for a long and hearty lunch of local cuisine, including hot chocolate with cream and germknoedel for dessert ... germknoedel being a massive doughy dumpling, filled with a liquer jam and covered in vanilla sauce and chocolate shavings. Yum.


As the days wore on, the thin snow was taking more and more of a beating and the runs would become increasingly icy and hard. We guess sunshine has its downside, after all. There's no snow in the forecast, either, or even any decent cold temperatures - just more sun! As fun as ice climbing and skiing and snowboarding are, they need good conditions ... will we be back on the rock earlier than expected?

Brand ...

So we're in Switzerland, trip planning in a Swiss version of a greasy spoon (it was spotless), when Marty pops up online. Where to go, what to do and when: these are big questions.

But hey, Marty and his lovely girlfriend Julia live a little over an hour and a half away in Dornbirn, Austria ... and hey presto, a plan was formed!

We arrived for beers and a long catch up last night, and once we'd packed Marty off to work this morning, we headed out to enjoy the Austrian Alps. First stop was shopping for new boots for Jen (desperately overdue!), new sunglasses for Jen (a belated birthday present (Ed: due to indecision!)) and for us both - some wiregate carabiners. We're hoping the wiregates won't freeze up as much as conventional carabiners, if they get wet. We'll see how they go.

Then, mountain time - off to nearby Brandnertal  ...

... which looks a little like this. The photo doesn't do the ice justice - the chandeliers are truly spectacular, hanging down over an overhang in all manner of shapes. And these falls are up to 100 metres long, too - so taller than the image gives them credit for.

We thought they were looking a little thin after the recent (relatively) warm weather but after a glance at our guidebook, we realised that they're always quite thin - that's why most of the lines here are hard! So yes ... we might not be back to climb them any time soon... off for some skiing/snowboarding instead.