Hotel Vista Allegra Ischgl

... ble to find * ski store with * helpful clerk who fitted Tori out with new skis, boots, bindings *nd stocks me*ning th*t the trip to Innsbruck w*s not completely fruitless, but I decided th*t I would by ge*r in St Anton inste*d where there *ppe*red to be *n equ*l or better r*nge of products *nd much better service.

We're very much looking forw*rd to venturing up the mount*in *nd p*rt ...

Travel to Austria from Perth via Tokyo, Milan and Innsbruck is not recommended. To describe this route as a 'milk-run' would be an understatement of epic proportions. I calculated the total travel time to be somewhere in the vicinity of 30hrs (not including time spent in transit) so you can probably understand our relief when we arrived at our final destination in the town of St Anton, Austria.

Our home for the next 4 ...

... Trey and I returned to the top again intent on blasting down the mountain at top speed. We both made it down without using the brakes at all in 5 minutes and some-odd seconds. We both had a blast. Trey video recorded his first descent and he intends on publishing on youtube when we return home.

... us. The road was barely a car and a half wide and all the way up we encountered people on bicycles coming down the road that were obviously part of some race that was going on. These were being passed by cars and motorcyclists coming down while others were going up, which made the hairpin turns very interesting. We tried to stop as often as possible to take pictures, which don't really grasp this ...

... we enjoyed a delicious Styrian (the province where the Gruber family is from where we head next) style ham for pre-Easter dinner and are having an Easter lunch of Wiener Schnitzel (not very eastery but I can think of nothing more perfect being that we are having an Austrian Easter so I'm happy) and fresh apple pie for dessert! We also spent a good amount of time sitting around the kitchen table talking with Franz (who has pretty solid English, but would ...

... the next 4 days so we got some great conditions. After that it was all blue sky hot sunny days.

I used to work in St Anton quite a while back so it's great coming back here each year and seeing a few old friends who've kept doing ski season after ski season.

Hommikul käisime suusatamas ja kuna ilm oli taas lumetuisune, siis pikalt ei viitsinud mäel kangutada. Otsustasime Eeroga sõita Galtüri, mis 10km mööda orgu edasi. Galtüris oli 23. veebruar 1999 kaasaja üks karmimaid laviini katastroofe. Suurte lumetuiskudega tekkis mäenõlvale 4m paksune lumekiht, mis 23. valla pääses. Pulberlaviin tuli linnale 290km/h ja kokku oli lund 170000 tonni. Oma suurimas mahus oli laviini kõrgus koguni 100m. Laviin jõudis linnani vaid 50 sekundiga. Linnal on kolm ...

Maandusime Münchenis, kus saime ette bronnitud Avise autod. Ischglisse sõitsime ca 3,5h. Meie appartment hotell oli täiesti linna südames. Korter oli 4-toaline ja mõeldud 8-le, aga tegelikult oli seal 3 kahest ja üks pooleteiskohaline voodi. Nii siis oligi, et Andrus, kel õnneks oli madrats kaasas, magas põrandal. Maja ise oli värskelt renoveeeritud. Garaaz oli kahekordne ja autod sõitsid keldrisse liftiga. Esimene õhtu läksime sööma üle tänava olevasse restosse, mis ...

... inimtühi, sest see oli hooldamata ning hüpekad olid liiga järsud. Lisaks olid osad rajad kohati "loiud", st et suusakeppide abil sai küll edasi, aga laudurid pidid laua alt võtma ja kõndima kuni järgmise laskumiseni või liftini. Osad nõlvad olid suusatajate poolt päeva lõpuks lausa liiga muhklikuks sõidetud, niiet põlved said kõvasti vatti.

Ilm oli iga päev TÄIESTI erinev! Esimesed päevad siras päike, siis paar päeva sadas lund ja nähtavus oli lausa ...

... Hotel Europe, we stopped for some ice cream. I see why Europeans like their ice cream so much. It is really rich, smooth and delicious.

Once we were back in the room, we started to get ready for dinner. We were heading up the Jakobshorn Mountain for dinner, via cable car (two of them, actually) to the top. I can’t wait to see the view from the top at night. The view from the cable car was incredible...you could see the entire valley. However, the restaurant was ...