Nov 24, 2010

Skiing in Obergurgl, Austria

Over Veteran's Day weekend, Brian and I took the four-day weekend to travel to Austria to do some skiing! When I started to research trip options for that weekend, I was going through a spreadsheet we have of "places we want to go", and I saw a few ski resorts. I thought, there's no way they could be open... but it doesn't hurt to look! When I looked up Obergurgl, the website said that they were going to have a Pre-Opening weekend over our Veteran's Day holiday! Perfect. The snow came a little earlier than expected this year - just for us! And, because it was early, the resorts and ski lifts had some special deals - woohoo!

So Thursday morning, we woke up early and hit the road to Austria! Neither of us had been there before, so we were excited to see a new country. The drive was about 6 hours, which wasn't bad at all. The last couple of hours were in the mountains - gorgeous, with views like this:


We also found this castle. Castles are always a nice little bonus :)

When we arrived at our hotel, we found our room to be quite cozy! I loved the Alp lodge-y feel.


And it came with a spectacular view

The history of this hotel was really cool. It was started by a family (who still owns it) back in the 1800s. The family basically founded the town and were the first to start high-elevation construction in the area.



We spent the evening warming up in the lobby, relaxing at the spa, and indulging in the five course gourmet dinner served by our hotel.



Friday morning we were up early and ready for breakfast and for the mountain! Without thinking too much about it, we layered up like we usually do. But after our first run, we realized that we were WAY over-layered :) I ended up skiing in a t-shirt and my jacket the rest of the weekend - we had such nice weather!

This trip was our first time to try skiing instead of snowboarding. Brian said he hadn't skied in 34 years...I think it had been a really long time for him :) It had been about 5 years for me, so we were both pretty wobbly in the beginning. We also didn't realize that all of the lifts weren't open, so we skied to the wrong base on our first trip down the mountain. Whoops! As we were standing there, taking off our skis for the long walk back to a lift that was working, two guys stopped and asked if we wanted a ride. I was really surprised by the gesture because we haven't met many Europeans who would have made that offer. After we loaded our stuff in their Mercedes SUV, we quickly figured out they weren't European, they were Israeli! I was thinking, "Oooh, that makes more sense." When they told us they were from Israel, they asked if we had heard of it. Here's what happened next:

Brian: "Oh, the little country by Gaza."
Israeli 1: "What did you say?"
Brian: "Uh, the little country?"
Israeli 1 to Israeli 2, chuckling: "He said Gaza."

I thought it was hilarious that Brian brought up the big controversy about their country within 2 minutes of talking with them. But of course he was so smooth and friendly, it didn't matter. They were extremely nice and drove us all the way back to our lift, which we quickly figured out would have been a painfully long walk. We wished them luck in "making ski" as they put it :)

The rest of the day was much more successful! First, we got a map of the mountain and figured out where we could and could not ski. Maybe that should have been step one? :) And we both became much more comfortable on our skis as the day progressed.



When we finished skiing, we went straight to our hotel's spa and spent a couple of hours relaxing our muscles. And then it was time for another 5 course dinner!

The next morning, we enjoyed another breakfast, and this time we brought our coffee back to our balcony.


Day two of skiing was sunny but a little icy in the beginning. There were quite a few ski teams out on the mountain in the morning, and they would fly past us at speeds I've never seen anyone ski in person. After a couple of runs, we kept finding the same team, so we named them the Blue Devils. They were wearing all blue ski suits and they almost hurt us...which added the devil part. We would be taking a picture or enjoying a view, and then all of a sudden, SWOOSH SWOOSH. We'd say, "Take cover!" and hide behind a ski lift post. After we got over the fear of being run over, it was really cool to watch the ski teams at work.


We ended up finding a few runs that had some good powder and hung out there all day. Because it was a special opening weekend, the mountain was really empty, so it felt like we had it all to ourselves! I thought that Saturday might get worse because of the weekend, but we never had to wait in a line and we hardly saw anyone on the runs. It was so perfect! It was a great time for us to get our ski legs back.



Speaking of which, Brian did so well skiing. It was basically his first time since he couldn't remember the last time he skied, but he was flying down the mountain and doing surface tricks by the end of the trip. Witness, exhibit A:



Every time we got on a lift, he cracked me up because his legs barely fit.

To give our legs a break, we stopped and rested in a warming hut on the mountain. Because it was the weekend before the grand opening, the hut wasn't open for business. But, the owner was really nice and let us sit inside, and he even gave us a drink of honey pear schnapps to warm us up! Mmm! I wish we could have gone back the next weekend, because the band equipment and tent bar that they were setting up looked like a lot of fun!

View from the warming hut

After a few more runs, we called it a day. This evening we went on a walk around the town. There was a church in front of our hotel that was so pretty. It had a cemetery around it, and the headstones were these iron crosses that were so unique and beautiful.


View from the top of our parking garage

Sunday was our last day to ski - sad! It was another great day - good weather and not too many people. After we got started on the powder-y runs from the day before, we decided to go to the other side of the mountain to check out the snow and try some new runs. And boy were we glad we did! First, the gondola ride over was breathtaking!




View of our little town from the gondola


The very top of the mountain had been closed on our side of the mountain, but on the other side it was open! So we immediately took the lift straight to the top to check out the view. At the peak, there was the most awesome bar I've ever seen. All glass walls and an amazing view of the Alps!

Bar at the peak

The valley behind us is the one we drove through to get to our resort

There was also a walkway along the ridge that had more cool views.

Walkway back to the bar



After taking in the view, it was time to see what kind of powder this new part of the mountain had. And we were very excited to find great ski conditions on every run we tried! We had the best time exploring the mountain and enjoying the sunny weather.




Unfortunately, around 3, we decided it was time to get on the road. So we turned in our skis, showered, and took off. The drive out was beautiful, making it even harder to leave. Couldn't we just "have a flat tire" and "get stuck" for a few more days??

I want to get stuck in that little village


After this weekend, we were convinced that we will definitely be going back to Austria for more skiing!

2 comments:

  1. Looks beautiful - what a quaint little village to visit for a delightful and memorable weekend. I think you will never forget this Veteran's Day.

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  2. The views are incredible! I'd want to get stuck there too. :)

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