Austria: Big Sis Skiing Down the Alps

Hey folks, this is Big Sis and I'm going to tell you all about my adventure in the Alps and the 5 day ski trip I had.

Since this was a Christmas gift, we left just 3 days after Christmas and drove all the way the Austria. It was a long drive, but we got to the Air B&B and started our snow adventure.

Day 1: We left at 8 o'clock, but we didn't get to the top of the mountains until 9:15. The lines for the gondola were so long and it took forever to get to the top. But I do have to say, the view on the ride up was absolutely beautiful. And since there was freshly fallen snow, it was even more beautiful.

I already knew how to ski because I went on a ski trip with my friends in Korea, so I had a high hopes for a super fun adventure of going down an awesome trail. I was so excited to ski because I saw all of the super steep slops and I was dying to go on them. I was so excited. Sadly, that hope was slightly let down because I was put with the instructor with a whole bunch of little kids learning the basics. I knew all of that and so I was slightly bored for the first half of the lesson. Luckily, I talked to the instructors at lunch time and they put me, still with little kids, but that were more advanced. So we went down the small slopes over and over again doing maneuver skills. Before I knew it, the day was over. I was happy that I still had my skiing skills after a year. We had dinner, which was super good, and then we went back to the Air B&B and made gingerbread houses. We brought all the materials with us, including the homemade frosting and the gingerbread cut outs, also homemade, and then we made and decorated the houses.

They looked so cute in the end. we even put it together to look like a little village of gingerbread houses. After we finished making the houses and cleaning we went to bed with a great excitement for tomorrow's trip.

Day 2: We left a bit early today so we could get to the slops in time for our 9 o'clock lessons, but we left a tad earlier then we expected, and so I went free skiing down the same slop as yesterday. I went at a super fast pace, and the wind sure felt really cold when I was whipping down the slope.

We got to our lesson, and I was with the same instructor as yesterday, and to my relief, we were going on some more intermediate-advanced slops. sadly, I was still in the group with all 6-7 year olds.

After the group got all together, we went up a different lift to the very top of the mountain. The day had crystal clear skies and the view was absolutely amazing.

After getting off the lift, we skied all the way down and passed the normal end area and took a trail that went all the way to the base of the mountain. My instructor knew that I could go at a really fast pace, and so me and two of the fastest kids went ahead of the group. The speed that we were going down was insanely fast and we skied all the way to the bottom. It was a super long and amazing trail. The view was spectacular, and we passed some sections of the mountain that the snow had turned to bright blue ice. It was the most beautiful thing. I had so much fun just skiing by myself down the side of a mountain, in Austria. The feeling was so thrilling. After everyone else got to the base of the mountain, we got back up to the top and went down to the normal end zone. I had lunch with mom and dad today.

After lunch, we did a couple more trails and then, like yesterday, the rest of the day was gone in a flash. When we left, we got changed and went to dinner, and since it was new year's eve, there was a firework show and a candle ceremony and so we stayed at the restaurant and watched the fireworks. It was so much fun to still have a firework show, at the ski resort, in Austria, on New Year's Eve. We stayed a bit linger and then got to bed. For some reason, I just woke up at 11: 58 pm, just in time to look out or window and see the whole ski resort light up with fireworks at midnight. It was a whole 15 minutes of watching before I told myself that I'd better get to bed. It was such a great day.

Day 3: Happy New Year's. 2020!!! We left the same time 7:50, but to our great surprise, there was no one in line for the ski lift. We were almost certain the it was closed, but it wasn't, just the fact that since it was New Year's Day, people stayed up late and got drunk. Not us!!!! HAHA. We had almost the whole entire resort to ourselves, except for the instructors and students. I was still in the same group with little kids, but it was nice not having the constant fear of maybe running into someone. We went down the same slops as yesterday plus a few that started at the very tippy top of the mountain, the peak I should say. Those trail were the longest, and super fun to go down on.

It was a lot of fun doing it again. And then we had lunch in an almost abandoned lunch cafe. Then my instructor put me in a new group. I was so happy because she put in a super advanced group with kids my age. There were 6 boys and 2 girls, not including myself. I quickly made friends with Aidan, from the states, and Dylan, from the UK. We talked a lot while skiing down the slopes.

The group went at a much faster speed which was so exciting. We went down the slops 2 more times and even had some fun on the speed test. I was the fastest kid in the group a whole 53 km/hr. The instructors still beat me. We also had some fun at going on a trail that had a few jumping areas. We did some very small jumps and then the day was over super quick again. After the day was spent we did the normal routine of going to dinner, and then getting too tired to stay up any longer and going to bed. I had so much fun in being with a group that I actually fit in.

Day 4: Today there were a lot more people then yesterday, but still smaller than normal. We got up to the slope early again and so I did a few more early runs by myself before lessons started. Sadly, my instructor, Elizabeth, was sick and so we had a sub. We went on the tallest trail and went all the way down the mountain to the trial I did on day 2. This was the first time everyone else went on this trail, but it was my second. Today, there was cloud cover, which meant that we got to ski through clouds towards the bottom of the trail. I got so excited when we entered to clouds.

It was super fun, because everyone jut somehow managed to start racing everyone. So the whole group was racing down to the bottom. It was so much fun and the thrill of going down the mountain again was the best. We did go to the back of the mountain and did a trail that the other kids had gone on before, The Witches Trail. It had 2 tunnels and was super twisty. However, we couldn't go all the way down because one of the kids got lost and went down the wrong trail and so the rest of our group of 6 kids, some left the previous day, took off our ski's, put them in a pile of snow not to far off, and started playing in the snow. We had snowball fight and some of the boys were trying to knock down a 2 1/2 foot long icicle hanging down from the witches tunnel.  They were unsuccessful.

We waited for about 20 minutes and then our substitute instructor finally came back with the missing student. Then we continued on the path and went down some extremely steep hills on the back of the mountain. That was super fun.

We did the same thing after lunch and then we did a skiing test. Each group was ranked and the top 3 would get medals the next day. After the test was finished we quickly did a speed test, and to my surprise I was the fastest out of everyone in the group, including my instructor, at 56 km/hr. That speed was insane, and I have to say that stopping is the hardest part after speeding past the speed gauge. The day was done super fast again and then me and my family went to dinner, played a few games before bed and then dozed off to sleep. I say today topped all the others. I couldn't wait for the next day.

Day 5: Today was the last skiing day and it was the most amazing day that I had. Sadly, I had to see going up to the slope one last time. The view was still as gorgeous as ever.

Today, we didn't have a lot of time to go free skiing, but it was okay with me. Today there was only 5 people in the group including me. We still had the substitute, but that was okay. Today we didn't go on any of our normal trails but only on the ones that advanced people could go on. When I saw how long and steep they were, I was so nervous. If I was just skiing by myself, there was no way in the whole world that I would go down this trail, but before I could do anything, the instructor sped off down the hill and so I had to go down to catch up with them. The pictures make the slopes look small then they actually were in real life.

 As it turned out, the trail wasn't that bad. Granted it was hard to keep control of my ski's because the ice was all powdered up, but it was still super fun. While going down the almost 3 mile long trail that was extremely steep, we practiced parallel skiing which only advanced adults can do, but I could easily do it. I don't like to use it, but it sure is fun to do. We went down all kinds of new and hard trails. It was so much fun, but in the back of my head, I was thinking that this was the most terrifying thing in the world and the fear of falling down the mountain didn't ever happen (thank goodness). We continued to go down new and hard trail for the rest of the day after lunch.

Once again, we rode the gondola down, for the very last time of our trip. I will always remember the view and the amazing adventure I had experienced these past 5 days.

After we got off the lift, we went to a meeting house so all of the kids that did the test could get their medals. All of us got rewards. I got second place in my group.

It was so much fun to see my friends one more time before we had to leave and go back to the Air B&B for the last time. I sadly had to say good bye to my new friends and the skiing resort, but I had such a great adventure that I will never forget. Today was to must amazing day out of the entire week and my favorite overall. I have learned so much and I can't wait to go skiing again in the future.

Day 6: We drove back home and we finished our winter break. I am so happy that I was able to go on this Christmas skiing trip. I thank my mom and dad for giving us this amazing adventure and I am so happy that I could share this adventure will you all. I hope that we can go skiing again in the future because I love the thrill of these adventures.

Austria: Kevin Snowboards the Alps

Austria: "Well then, Good-day mate!" (Dumb and Dumber reference) Sorry I had too. Kev's here, and I wanted to start off what a genius idea it was to start learning to snow board at 39. Can you tell my sarcasm?

So lets start off with why I didn't try skiing when it's "easier to learn, harder to master." Well I have this frustration with my feet being able to go in independent directions, and having wakeboarded a time or two I thought this would be a better option.

So this trip required an intense amount of gear. Luckily for us we prepared for it when we had the chance to buy snow boards, boots, bindings, skis, ski snows and polls in Korea when Camp Humphrey's outdoor rec sold their old ones. $20 bucks for a board, $10 for boots, ya!

Once we did our typical clampit style loading of the highlander, we set off for Austria. Our airBnB room was a lucky find because this was a last minute planned trip, and come to find out this is a tradition for literally everyone there. We even had dinner with families that have made this a trip every year for 20+ years.

We still had a rent a few things for the kiddos, and we made the best decision by going up the night before in order to get the kids rentals for the week, like for little A and Monster, when the ski shop was slow. It was a mad house the day before.

The next day one we parked at the base of the Alpendorf ski slope, arriving an hour early before our lessons, and then we hit our first road block: the dang ski lift! Maybe this a norm for ski slopes, because I have been to a ton right (meaning only 1), and it was here that I discovered that at least here, there are no lines to get to the ski lift up the mountain, but rather its just the standard to be literal be squished like cattle, and every minute or so there is a penguin like shuffle forward an inch, eventually reaching the entrance. It was miserable, and after an hour and a half, we finally made it onto the ski lift, feeling violated and victorious, knowing that all my plans for early arrival were gone.

 The lift up was amazing though! We were in the top of the mountains literally. We kept counting the cars to see how high the numbers went, which we eventually figured out their were 133 cars. When we arrived to the top though, we had to quickly figure out where to put each child. After finally getting Monster into his class, and dealing with the first of a hundred meltdowns he would have for the week, Heather, M&M and I started with our first snow board lesson!

The teacher was Mia, a native of Denmark, who was applying to medical school and works here during the winter. She was awesome, but man what a rough start. We learned from a prior friend who went with us in Korea and crashed horribly breaking her sacrum, to pad your rear end, and boy was that true! I feel over and over again and again.

As the lesson continued during the afternoon and after a massively expensive lunch, we again dropped Monster off, endured another meltdown, and we started again. That didn't last long as he continued to scream the entire time we were gone, and so we eventually had to split our time up the rest of the week in order to keep him from being a terror there. What a monster.

That afternoon I successfully made it down the bunny hill without falling but then biffed it royally at the end, hitting my head. I was so grateful for safety equipment, and a butt pad, because I sure was beat up by the end of the day. We got back to the house the night and man I was so sore. We luckily had a drying rack in the house, and we placed all the lugs on the radiator heaters to dry off, but unfortunately that didn't prove to effective, and by weeks end my gloves were rank! I threw them promptly away after my last run with happiness.

Day 2 was New Years eve, and the mountain was insanely packed! Today presented a new challenge, the lift up the hill. So Alpendorf is an amazing mountain, and today were were stretched to go up higher, but we had to get up the lift. Picture a ski rope that a little seat on it which if you were a skier would super easy because it can stay in the middle of your legs. Not for us though: we had to keeps our legs sideways on the board but keep the rope straight! That was so frustrating! So when you do that your board will suddenly trail off in different directions when you edge one way or the left, and that was very hard to control. Team that with a drop off on one side and watch your board going that way and you do what I did like 100 times: Bail! Then you have to the do the walk of shame up the rest of the way up, knowing that you are silently being mocked by every little 4 year old that seems to understand this process better than you do and coast right by you and stare you down! I wish I could say the day was better, but I failed this so many times.

Day 3 was New Years day, and we showed up at our original time we had been to beat the rush, only to find there was no rush, there was no line, there was no one on the mountain, and why: Yep, every one was hungover from the night before. We did the mountain again, and today I finally made it up the slope! I was able this afternoon to finally get down the mountain with minimal biffs. We learned to turn today and that was so hard, finally learning that let my front foot guide me. Heather did even better today, and Mia suggested we should go with Hans from the Netherlands to the next advanced class. Showed up again. Heather went with that class and I stayed with M&M. I learned something about M&M today. She progressed faster than any of us, but every time she fell she squealed like a little pig. It was super funny!

Day 4 Today, I was moved up to Hans class, and M&M decided to stay with Mia. Today was the big hills, and learning to do the normal lifts which as a 4 day amateur was a feat to pull off, and I pulled a residency mentality and simply just faked it until I made it. The mountain slopes were insanely scary, but our teacher Hans so was so chill. He helped me get over the massive anxiety of the slope of the mountain, and take it step by step and stage by stage. I would putter out early on some inclines, go too fast on others and fall backward, but there were multiple moments where I conquered my fears and success, made it down! It was today that I began to really enjoy it.

Day 5 was our last day, and today was a continuation of the mountain, and we did a red course which was super steep. That scared me at first, but it taught me to get past the psych of it and show myself that I could. Now having 5 days of brusing, falling more time than I can ever count, but luckily not having a major injury, I did our speed test and competition, and completed the week. That evening we went to the lodge for the "awards" ceremony which was super fun. We got a change to celebrate our instructors, and I ordered a table worth of hot chocolate which was delicious!

Here we celebrated each kids success for the week, and Heather and I even won some ridiculous things, but it was awesome! We then faced an incoming snow storm, and so packed up the night before and left early Saturday morning in order to not get trapped there!

So yes, I want to snow board again, I want to come back to Alpendorf, and enjoy this great but very expensive place!