Tirol Trip Report

[Timeless]

Hi All,

 

just thought I'd post a few pic's from my weekend stuck over here in Europe. Some friends and I headed down to Austria's Tirol region to the Stubai Gletscher (Glacier) valley, arrived saturday lunchtime to find that they were closing the glacier resort because of the storm and avalanche conditions, so we headed to a smaller resort at the foot of the valley call Schlick2000, still over 3000ft vertical and pretty expansive, they dont do small mountains or resorts over here. So when we arrived it was pretty socked in with the weather but you could just see some peaks above,

 

But by 2pm the clouds broke and you could really see the breathtaking scenery.

 

 

 

The snow was a mix of long mogul-ly pistes, and lots of surprisingly unskied "off-piste" (really between-piste) which was pretty nice soft but quite windblown and hence variable depth snow. We found a couple of areas like this one where the snow had collected on certain faces, it was really deep and awesome coming down from the left of this pic.

 

 

Last run down was "peak to base", 2250m to 1000m, a really nice mix of terrain, but a real leg-burner, we retired to our 40 euro B&B after a few beers.

 

Next morning we are off to the glacier, forecast was cold and windy (which turned out to be true), so not many pics as it was basically low to zero visibility most of the day. A quick view of the base area (1750m), this place is TALL, peak at 3250m and there is an ungroomed run from top to bottom called the wilde grub'n which just has to be seen to be believed, 10km and 5000 vertical feet of bleu/black terrain, freakin awesome.

 

 

 

So up on the glacier the snow was lovely in places but visibility quite bad, this picture was during one of the "bright" periods. Dropping off the windlip to the right of this picture was deep soft snow which was amazing while the visibility was there but surreal when it went to flat white, at one point I was so dis-oriented I had to stop and wait to get my bearings back.

 

 

All in all it was quite an experience, whilst I am still of the opinion that the (western, sorry) US resorts offer a combination of snow and facilities that is tough to beat, I would certainly do this again every time the opportunity arose. One other thing, it's really cheap to ski here, 20 euro for a half day ticket at Schlick and 40 something (42 I think) for the glacier.

[AtomicSkier]

Awesome Timeless. The scenery is spectacular, and those ticket prices are hard to beat. Hell, $56 for a full day is almost the same price as Blue Mountain. How much longer you going to be there? Any more ski days in store?

[Timeless]

No more days out here, have to make do with Tahoe from now until the new year at least Coming home on thursday after some more work here in Regensburg.

 

Honestly, I'm looking forward to getting back and riding my own board again. Next time out I will bring it with me.

 

The scenery is spectacular when the sun is out, standing at the "top of Tirol" on the glacier, you can see clear into Italy to the south. Still a couple of firsts for me, first time (riding)in the Tirol, first time on a glacier, first time in a six pack with a "bubble" to keep the wind off.....

[RidgeRacer]

Nice pics...thanks.

[Barb]

Nice pics. I love how you say you are "stuck in Europe." I can think of worse places to be.

[Timeless]

Nice pics. I love how you say you are "stuck in Europe." I can think of worse places to be.

 

English humor, and yes, there are many worse places to be. Regensburg is a beautiful town, mostly untouched by the war, unlike a lot of other cities here in Bavaria. Good food, beer and close to the Alps, not bad at all.

 

Sucks that 2 of my development centers are here and in Villach - Austria, oops there I go again.

[sibhusky]

One of my favorite places in the world is the town of Neustift which is in that valley. I've been several times there for "hut hopping" in the summer. I hope to go back sometime (again the summer) with Siblet.

 

I learned to ski in Austria many many many years ago and one thing I learned, that is the Rockies have the best skiing, but the towns of Austria and the apres ski experience makes the lower quality snow worthwhile.

[Mixilplix]

I learned to ski in Austria many many many years ago and one thing I learned, that is the Rockies have the best skiing, but the towns of Austria and the apres ski experience makes the lower quality snow worthwhile.

 

I agree with Sib...The whole vibe of being in Europe is great...