One Month ago....Mooserwirt , St Anton
Trip Start
Jun 02, 2008
1
2
48
Trip End
May 01, 2010
Innsbruck,
Austrian Alps,
Austria
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
I was on my way to St Anton, am Alberg -Austria's premier ski resort which ranks ranks among the top five resorts for truly challenging skiing
Danish Group at the Rendl Beach Bar
. I hold a special place in my heart for this crazy party town which has some of the biggest and most macho skiing in Europe. Learn to ski here and you can ski anywhere. I'd chosen Innsbruck as it is only an hour from St Anton by train, a small airport lodged between several mountain ranges, the descent into the town is magnificent and truly exhilarating. Jagged peaks surround the runway and I found myself glued staring out of the window, taking in the sheer raw beauty of the place. I had an hour before the train left and I strolled the station, grabbed a coffee in an Internet cafe and tried in vain to log on to my email defeated by the Austrian keyboard . Boarding the train I made my way to the restaurant car. I've learnt that you can stretch out even a three hour journey from Zurich in the restaurant car which always afford a slightly better quality of accommodation than second class without the cost of first...and its a great way to arrive. I sat down and ordered breakfast of tea and pastries from a rather surly Austrian waitress. There were just two other guys - speaking English , other than that I had the carriage to myself. I was slightly apprehensive as I was meeting a group of Danish and Germans who I'd met just a few weeks earlier...one of the guys had an apartment which he'd hired for the season and they were returning for some April spring skiing. It was only a short walk from the station but my bag was heavy and it was hot so i took a taxi
In the Piccadily! St Anton
. Arriving outisde the appartment I stood gazing up at the mountain peaks of Rendl in the distance and then turned to see a familiar tall figure, dressed in a striking vivid blue ski jacket rounding the corner ..stiriding towards me. A big grin breaking over his face....Dumping my bags in town we briefly waited until the afternoon discount pass kicked in. St Anton is not cheap - the pass will set you back around 38 euros a day, but the mileage is huge. We took the GalzigBahn - an impressive piece of engineering whisking us up to the mid station. From there we skieed down Happy Valley (why? because its a confidence building run although it often gets cut off during severe snow dumps) down to the Krazy Kanguruh and on to the mighty Mooserwirt. During season the Mooserwirt sells an inordinate amount of beer, young fit waiters wield massive trays above their heads bearing drinks stacked high. The bar music system blares out a mixture of music but German songs seem to predominate. Here a willingness to dance on tables is practically an entrance requirement. A second requirement is the ability to ski down intoxicated afterwords - or if you're lucky hitch a ride on a toboggan. Walking down is only for the very brave.
A good crowd was already milling, lots of atmosphere but plenty of room to dance
The mighty Mooserwier!
. All the Danish group were there - the only two missing were the two German girls coming later from Munich. I was the only girl in a party of seven men - which was pretty much spot on for the St Manton stats. Not wanting to appear a light weight and with my English reputation to maintain, I drank beer for beer with the lads . Beers and shots kept appearing from nowhere and as they did the dancing got more bizarre . Now tea dancing is typically described for more sedate dances such as Tango and Cha Cha Cha which happen around - you guessed it - tea time. In the Austrian ski resorts - it is normally used to describe the dancing which takes place in the apres ski zone - anytime from 4 O'clock. And typically you dance or rather stomp in your ski boots. The good thing is the more you drink the more you forget the pain your toes are going through - crammed in ski boots and in fact by the end of the evening we were all dancing to the sounds of summer of 69, let me entertain you and some German songs wit strange lyrics like .."I like my hair" ,"I'm an onion" and "Joanna you horny sow" ...but if you dont understand german its fine... At about 8pm - tired and intoxicated we staggered outside to put our skis back on for the 200 meter descent. I remember focussing hard, talking myself round each turn and then looking back to several of the group walking down in zig zags across the piste . That was my introduction to tea dancing - it had none of the spectacle or finesse of the other dances I was going to try on my travels - but it had a certain raw and macho appeal to it. And of course the setting makes it - hundreds of skiers crammed into a small bar, enjoying themselves, feasting on what makes skiing and apres ski so addictive...I stayed for two more days of glorious hard and fast skiing in blue skies with almost perfect conditions before returning to London to make my final preparations for the main trip to come....
