ischgl

 

In March, we went for a girls weekend in Ischgl, Austria. The three of us - me, Claudia and Laura - are all "intermediate" skiers (Melissa told me I can no longer call myself a beginner). We had a really great time.

 

 

The weather was amazing and we loved all the different slopes and the fact that they were very wide.

 

 

 

 

We skied all the way down the mountain, down some very steep reds (and almost accidentally ended up on a black, but luckily diverted).

 

Then we went out for après-ski

 

We had pizza in the hotel room and then went out for drinks again. When we made it to the bar we were very thirsty from our long day skiing, as you can tell from the picture below, we had at least two drinks each (half of which was water).

 

 

melissa's visit

Melissa came to visit! We had so much fun. She did a lot of skiing, a little touring of Zurich, and we enjoyed a wonderful weekend in Zermatt with my friends Daniela, Piotr, and Adrian. It was amazing to see the difference a year has made in my skiing ability since I was in the same place last year when Tree & Lauren visited. I've graduated to red slopes and was able to see the Matterhorn for the first time (last year it was too cloudy)! It was so beautiful that I wanted to stop every ten minutes and take a picture!

Dinner and beers at Zeughauskeller for Melissa's first night in Zurich:

 



Picture on our balcony Friday night after a fun train ride to Zermatt:

 



 

Lots of Matterhorn pics...It's so beautiful!

 

 

We skied all day Saturday. It was windy (making the gondolas and even chair lifts SUPER scary), but great.

 

 

 

At one point the conditions turned - whiteout:

 

We skied down a scary narrow and steep red slope, but the reward was worth it - this amazing après-ski bar:

 

 

 

We had dinner at the famous Whymper-Stube fondue restaurant. Whymper was the first to ascend the Matterhorn in 1865.

 

 

 

Melissa and Adrian convinced me to go skiing with them on Sunday as well. It was snowing the whole day so the slopes were practically empty. It was another full day of skiing (my first 2-day-in-a-row-ski experience and boy it was tiring!).

 

We had a great time. Thanks to Melissa for visiting and thanks to Adrian, Daniela, and Piotr for going with us :D

 

Final picture Melissa snapped of Adrian and I walking on to the train Sunday evening. Carrying all of our gear for a weekend plus ski gear is NOT easy!

 

 

 

 

 

daniela's birthday

For Daniela's birthday, a group of us went skiing/snowboarding in Flumserberg.

 

 

 

And then out to Paddy's for the evening.

 

skiing hoch ybring

A hard but fun day skiing at a new spot - Hoch Ybrig. The weather conditions were not in our favor as you can see.

 

lauberhorn ski race

Last weekend Daniela invited me to go with her and her friends to the Lauberhorn ski race. Apparently this is a big deal in Switzerland, but I had never heard of it. It was SO MUCH FUN!

 

 

After a long train ride from Zurich, we made it to our destination near Wengen. When we stepped off the train I was so surprised by the massive crowd of people on the one side of the mountain opposite where the race was going to take place, as you can see in the picture below:

 

 

There was a show by the Swiss Air Force. It was impressive, they did several flyovers in lots of cool formations, flying only 3 meters apart!

 

 

Due to the wind that day, they moved the start of the race down a bit.

 

Me and Carmen:

Me and Daniela:

 

 

Most of the other spectators were better prepared than we were (don't worry, we made friends with some of the more prepared people). They had raclette, wine, beer, food, liquor. Apparently, all the essentials for watching a ski race. All carried conveniently on a sled!

 

One of the Swiss skiers actually won the race (the crowd went wild), but there were some American fans too.

 

The whole experience reminded me of tailgating at a football game in the US. I think it was the drinking/eating outdoors with a sporting event involved. The day even included waiting in line for porta-potties while the boys peed in the woods (typical tailgating activity in the US).

 

 

 

As I mentioned before, this is a big event for the Swiss. Some of the spectators were so high class they arrived by helicopter. 

We decided to walk part of the way down the mountain to avoid the crowd on the train. It was really fun and the views were beautiful....until, I decided to try a softball slide down a steep part of the hill and my hiking boot stuck in the snow making my ankle "pop". I'm still recovering, but I think it'll be fine (see picture below).

 

Drinking free wine in free mugs on the train ride home:

 

 

And here's the picture of my ankle the next day. Yes, I normally have "Blasdel" ankles (thanks Aunt Jo!), but this is even larger than normal :)

 

 

 

skiing flumserberg

A group of us went to Flumserberg to ski for the day. My new ski gear worked out great. Having my own boots was much better and less painful than the rentals. The "beginners" stuck together in the morning, we all met up for lunch, and then all went on a full tour of the mountain in the afternoon. Our tour was complete with a couple falls and some slopes that I thought were so steep I would never make it down, but I did! Claudia took over as the designated "butt-skier" and voluntarily went down one of the slopes on her butt because it was too steep! Never a dull moment!

 

 

Jenna, Daniela, Adrian, Claudia, Piotr

 

And, my new poles didn't even last a day. The one got slightly bent on one of the falls: