Appartements Obergaisberg Kirchberg

Stayed at a beautiful spot in Austria (Saalbach) with Hilly, Stu's old friend and new Father..actually felt sorry for him, the poor sod was knee deep in relatives, in laws, newly purchased crib and nappies, etc.....we stayed for afew days and it was neatly timed with the arrival home of new born Frankie. Hilly's place is 3 feet from a field of horses so Lauren was easily kept busy with feeding duties.

Stu tried ...

En route to the airport, Keith needed to do a bit of shopping for next week's guests so we paid a visit to Kufstein while he shopped there. Kufstein is a town with big history, owned by Bavaria in the middle ages but long one of Tirol's most northerly towns. The historical centre is hard to miss: an ancient castle perched atop a hill.

The lower Altstadt is cute but consists ...

... legs began to whimper and ask whether it wasn't time to gently ride back to base for a nice, cold beer. However, they quickly came to their senses and marshalled themselves for the coming onslaught: a long, hard fire road climb up 9 long switchbacks. Bigger than anything in South East England, for sure. The reward was worth it: a long singletrack descent with lots to offer in ...

Now for the heavy stuff! After our customary farm-fresh, home-made breakfast, a 45-minute drive took us to Leogang. €25 bought a day's lift pass and I donned my arm and leg pads.

The beginner-freeride level trail is called Hangman II and runs from the midway lift station. It's a fairly wide trail with fine-gravel surfaces and big corners, with berms that weren't as high as I was ...

Another lovely farm-fresh breakfast. We had bought 2-day lift passes for Skiwelt so spent a second consecutive day there. Katie used the lifts and went walking along the top from above Scheffau toward Ellmau then down the funicular railway there.

Keith and I took the lift up from Scheffau. A lovely, blue, sunny day. The nature of the riding took a significant step up today. We practiced ...

After breakfast, we took a short ride along the cycle route to Söll where we bought our Skiwelt lift passes and took the ski lifts up to the hilltop.

There had been some rain overnight but it doesn't degenerate the trails here to the same extent as those around London. We practised gravelly switchbacks: moderately challenging and reasonably steep, then took the lifts up again from Söll for another go. We lunched at a mountaintop restaurant with it's own open ...

... carbon bars, stem and seatpost, very light and brisk, great for climbing, but quite different in feel from my Orange Five Pro. Brake levers are on the opposite side on the continent, adding to the task of adjusting my riding style. Our downward return was interrupted by a break to pick wild bilberries by the side of the path. I decided to ride to Ellmau afterwards to pick up some tyres that were ...

... the hotel wouldn't be able to give us a lift into town. Okay, we thought, but would we be able to book the glacier trip? I resolved there and then to find our own way into town. How hard could it be?

Anyway, they taxied us out to our hotel after dropping the Kitzbuehel contingent as our hotel was out by the lake. First impressions - very beautiful setting and they gave us a room with an enormous balcony - even though we hadn't paid extra for ...

... 21 was open for me. Everything was in place as i remembered except one little change as our group photo has a new home in the mensa (common room). I wandered around the house for a bit, saw good ol room 9. Dr Jim left a beer for me in the fridge so i took upon myself to have a drink in the Wintergarden where many a drink have been had. We continued up to through the Monchesburg to the Festung (Castle overlooking the city) and caught some pretty ...

... big surprise…there was a good, old fashioned peony, right up there in the Alps. There was a small visitor’s cabin in the garden where you could sign your name and where you lived. It was interesting to see the different places people had come from, all over the world, and Paul & Bev Malak from Lemont, Illinois, USA, added their names to the list. At about 3:15, the clouds started to break and we got our first glimpse of the valley. I am ...