Life is not a Practice

This afternoon out with the race bike and just now we were skiing on the floodlit Alpspitz. Just Alison and I.



We got there at six and the slope was perfectly pisted and empty. An hour later there were more people there so we had a drink sat outside looking at the full moon rising.

Swimming this morning (my Polar works underwater as well) and out skiing for an hour with Alison and Max on the Alpspitz this afternoon. Snow and sunshine within the one hour.



It really is a tough life when you can cycle, swim and ski all on the same weekend and all within 1 km of home.

We had some more snow during the week and it was cold enough for the snow cannons one night so today Alison and I went for an hours skiing in Nesselwang.

Great snow but very misty at the top of the mountain.

It snowed last night so Alison and I went for an hours skiing at the Alpsitz.

Christmas morning and Max and I were skiing on the Hahnenkamm in Austria. There is a warm wind out of the south (13°C) and only the piste has snow on it but there were NO PEOPLE.



We carved from top to bottom and didn't pass a single person all the way. The whole slope empty and just for us. On the second run we passed two people and by the final one there might have been a hundred people.

Christmas Eve afternoon and Alison and I were skiing on our local ski slope. Daniel, Max and a friend were also out on skis or snowboards and we all met for a drink in the sun.

Sunday morning at 05:00 and I had to work - it really is a tough life.

Drove up the partly snow covered and very windy Riedberg Pass to 1470 meters above sea level. Not a single other car going up and down so I had real fun with my 4WD Skoda Yeti.

At the top of the pass I put on my touring skis and set off under a million stars all twinkling in the cold. Not another person as far as the eye could see.

Reached the Riedbergerhorn at about 07:00 and could see all the lights across Lake Constance in Switzerland some 60 kilometers away. In the East the sky was slowly getting lighter.



Skied down the ridge and then up to the Grauenstein where we have a station (at 1750m) that supplies Internet to the village of Bolsterlang. Changed out a router that has been causing problems and rang my colleague to check that the new component was working properly.



Skied back up to the Riedbergerhorn and enjoyed the view while taking the skins off my skis and then had a dream descent through fresh powder snow all the way back to the car park. Scrounged a cup of coffee from the ski lift and then drove back towards the rising sun and home.

The route (from my GPS) is at http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=mgklsrjukonsvhwk

The ski season has started.



The Alpspitzbahn have been making snow all week and today they opened for one day of "pre-opening" skiing.
Great snow, sun and almost no people. All those there were locals.

Fun four hours but by then my legs were aching.

Max is coming back from diving in Egypt ( http://maxhogarth.blogspot.de/ ) today and is going to get such a shock when they open the aeroplane doors at Zurich and let the cold in :-)

The end of the first April week and time we were cycling. But there is still snow everywhere.
But rather than complain, Max and I went skiing in Oberjoch.
Perfect snow conditions, absolutely no people (no surprise there) and absolutely no visibility.



We had hoped we would come out above the clouds but we were a few hundred meters too low.

Easter Monday and there is still plenty of snow so I went to Unterjoch skiing. Actually went to Jungholz first but they have closed for summer.

Perfect piste and no people.