Gruess aus Oesterreich!

It has been snowing since we arrived on the 2nd. So of course we had to go play in the powder. Kristin, Kris and I went skiing on Axamer Lizum today. Not exactly like skiing in Minnesota. The intermediate runs here are equivalent to black diamonds in MN. First time out in a year is always a bit rusty at the beginning. It was snowing heavily when we arrived and you could almost not distinguish between mountain and sky. Later in the day, you could barely see the top of the lift above you. Made it a bit tough to see the terrain. At one point I thought I would just cut a diagonal to the little hut (it looked flat) and suddenly found myself going faster down a slope. Later in the day I ventured into some powder just off the normal run. It was lots of fun until I wiped out. Couple face plants, some downhill slides, but made it out in one piece!

At one point Kristin and I wanted to cut across to another lift and had to question if we were going to find outself dropping off a steeper edge or not. Do you think the snowplow is an official move in a half-pipe? We chickened out and took the obvious way. When the clouds cleared a bit, the rocky mountain tops dominated the sky. Hopefully tomorrow at Stubai Glacier will be a bit clearer. Today we are just relaxing and might go out for dinner. We thought about going to watch the ski jumping nearby, but wouldn't have made it there in time to be worth it. On the TV they said about 12,000 people were there. More pictures from this trip in the Innsbruck folder. Just click on the link in the right column.