Sunday, 26th February, 2012 - We had packed the night before, so we woke up at 7:00 to make the most of the day. We had talked a lot about it the night before, and as much as we had enjoyed skiing Jenner-Königssee, we decided it would be worth it to drive to one of the other mountains nearby that didn't have free rooms. After all, we had a car, so there was no real reason not to go. After fairly extensive research, we had settled on Großarl, Austria. Added bonus that they were expecting 7cm of snow overnight. We trooped down to an even better breakfast than the Saturday's because we were each given a piece of cake along with the usual spread "because it was Sunday" (likely because it was a Lent Sunday). We then loaded up and headed out for the hour long drive to Großarl, which included a mountain pass that was more than a little questionable. But we made it, no problem, and were soon being directed into a parking spot by a little old man with a fluffy snow cap. Not only was the parking conveniently at the base of everything, it was also conveniently free. We wandered mildly aimlessly until we saw a potential rental store and got geared up for the day. Both days rentals were 26€, though the lift pass here was 40€ compared to the 20€ at Jenner (though with the extra bit off). Still, not nearly as expensive as I had expected. We dropped our superfluous stuff back in the car and in no time at all were in another pod up the mountain - this time a six man outfit.
Again, pretty dang good view. They had an interesting sort of midway station where you could get off if you wanted, though the pods continued to move, although more slowly. I suppose similar to any other lift with a mid-station to get off at if you want, but since I've never been in pods before, I found it interesting.
For the most part, I liked the pods - they protected you from the elements, they were warmer, it was easier to talk, and for those that don't feel secure on ski lifts, these ought to make you feel a little safer. However, the big (and rather irksome in my humble opinion) drawback was that you had to take your skis off every time.
Unfortunately when we hit the top, (well, the 3/4 mark, but the top of this particular lift), Erica realized that her boots were too big, so she had to take the lift back down to the bottom to get another pair. Abby and I took the opportunity to find the one advanced run this side of the mountain and just did that over and over. The snow on that run was better, though we went off to the side of the run and skied through the powder the whole time, so that was pretty perfect. Oh, and as predicted, Großarl did get their 7cm of snow the night before. There was even still a little bit of snow drifting down.
A quick note on skiing difficulty in Europe: Unlike the four grade system we have in the US of green = easy, blue = medium, black diamonds = advanced, and double black = expert, European slopes use three grades to distinguish difficulty. Unless you're in France, where of course they would do things differently (a mix between the US and European systems). So, you have blue for beginners, red for intermediate, and black for advanced. That's it. And, contrary to popular belief that I've heard quite a few people say, I would argue that European "advanced" is NOT more difficult than our blacks and double blacks in the US. I would assert that European reds and blacks both fall into the US black diamond category, but that double blacks can be way more challenging than European blacks. Maybe not everywhere, I don't know, but in no way did I find the black "challenging", and from the reading I've done it seems that double blacks in the US include runs that would be way steeper than a lot of the runs you'll find in Europe. Looks like I'll have to do some more skiing to find out!
So after skiing over our powder find enough times to make it look like a groomed part of the slope, we went back to one of the restaurants at the top of the main lift we came up. We found a table and met up with Erica, who had managed to get another pair of boots and make one run in the mean time.
The restaurant was a classic! There were pictures and paintings of cows on the walls, the light fixtures were all the giant cow bells used in the German/Austrian festivals where they bring the cows down from the mountains for the winter, and everyone was having a good ol' time. One thing I noticed, since a lot of people walking around had their jackets off, was how many people were wearing back braces. Not only elderly people, either. Some were kids, most were in their middle ages, and a few were old, but I'd guess that 5 - 10% of people had on a back brace, like the kind you see motocross riders wearing. Maybe that's a growing trend in the US, too, I wouldn't know, but it was something I had never seen before.
After lunch we decided to give the other side of the mountain a go, so we skied down to a lift that would take us to the very top. It was snowing a bit heavier by then, and as we got nearer the top (we thought), it actually turned into a complete whiteout.
We got off at the top completely unable to see anything in any direction that we looked, so I did the best I could to navigate us in the direction that I thought the other few black runs were. I literally couldn't see a thing, which was a really odd experience and made me realize how much I rely on my vision when I ski. This was good training in being totally relaxed and letting my legs respond to the slope, I suppose. I stopped every now and then to check that there were two non-white blobs following me, and eventually we got low enough that there was some visibility again. I think the the wind and no tree protection at the top there was just nothing to provide any relief from the onslaught of snow.
We somehow missed the black run we were looking for, so we took another lift back up to try again. We missed it again and this time ended up somewhere else completely, but we figured we needed to get back up to the top of the mountain somehow so we could get back down the side we had come up. Oddly enough, once you hit the top, if you went down one way you were on the Großarl side, but if you went down the other side of the slope you ended up in a completely different resort, Dorfgastein. We realized that the last lift up would be closing soon, so we figured out where we were on a map, figured the best place to get to where we needed to be, and headed out. Unfortunately when we found the lift we needed and got to the top, we didn't see any signs for the run we wanted. To complicate matters we were again on a part of the mountain which was more whiteout than not, but we got directions from some passing skiers and went on our way. Abby and Erica were a little less than thrilled at this point. They were worried we'd be up on the mountain after it got dark and poor Abby was freezing since she was using make shift ski clothing, but I knew where we needed to get to and had a very good idea of how to get there, so I was able to keep us going. Lo and behold, ten minutes later I had us back on one of the runs that would take us to the bottom of Großarl. About fifteen minutes later I had us practically skiing up to the door of our ski rental shop. And they were worried we were going to be stuck on the mountain!
We tried to join the Après Ski scene that was going on in a circular tent with a circular bar in the middle, but we literally could not move, so Abby and Erica took their beers into the hotel restaurant next door and we all ordered a light dinner (and hot chocolate for me, our ever responsible DD) to kill some time. Abby's train didn't leave Salzburg until 9:00 and we didn't want to make her wait there for hours. On the other hand, it was an hour's drive back to Salzburg and then Erica and I had three hours back to Vienna after that. We ended up leaving Großarl around 7:00, and after a quick goodbye at the train station, parted ways. Luckily we now know that we're both in Europe, and relatively nearby, and will both be here for a while, so we're planning a few excursions this summer.
The drive back to Vienna was relatively uneventful, other than hitting a ten minute patch of pretty heavy snow, but we got back in one piece, I dropped off Erica, drove back to Bisamberg, unpacked a bit, then passed out around 1:00. Long weekend, but so worth it! I can't wait to hit the slopes again and I really really hope to get out at least once more this season.
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