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?